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THE   PILGRIMS 


THE   PILGRIMS 


BY 

FREDERICK  A.  NOBLE 

PASTOR   EMERITUS  OF   UNION    PARK   CONG  REG  ATIOXAL   CHURCH,  CHICAGO 

AUTHOR   OF   "DIVINE   LIFE   IN   MAN,"    "DISCOURSES  ON   PHILIP- 

PIANS,"    "  OUR   REDEMPTION,"   AND    "  TYPICAL 

NEW  TESTAMENT   CONVERSIONS" 


The  noblest  ancestry  that  ever  a  people  looked  back  to  with  love 
and  reverence." — John  G.  Whittier 


BOSTON 
THE     PILGRIM    PRESS 

NEW   YORK  CHICAGO 

1907 


LOAN  STACK 


Copyright,  1907 
By  Luther  H.  Cary 


THE  UNIVERSITY   PRESS,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.  S.  A. 


TO 

EDWARD   FRANKLIN   WILLIAMS 

A    FRIEND 

WHOSE    FRIENDSHIP    IS    OF    LONG    STANDING 

AND 

TENDERLY    CHERISHED 


195 


PREFACE 

THE  story  of  the  Pilgrims  is  not  merely  a  twice-told 
tale  —  it  is  a  tale  which  has  been  told  over  and  over. 
Historians  renowned  for  their  ability  and  learning, 
essayists  distinguished  for  their  literary  skill,  orators  of 
the  highest  order,  poets  of  world-wide  fame,  and  patient 
chroniclers  have  all  taken  it  in  hand ;  and  not  a  few  of  the 
facts  entering  into  the  narrative  are  as  familiar  as 
household  words. 

Of  the  earlier  writers,  Bradford,  Winslow,  and  the  Mor- 
tons, along  with  what  is  found  in  Robinson's  works  and 
the  records  and  laws  of  the  colony,  have  supplied  a  fund 
of  information,  original  and  precious  above  all  that  any- 
body else  can  ever  hope  to  contribute,  towards  our  knowl- 
edge of  this  little  Plymouth  colony.  Of  the  later  writers, 
Hubbard,  Prince,  Young,  Baylies,  Thacher,  Hunter, 
Davis,  Cheever,  Bacon,  Elliott,  the  Dexters  —  three  of 
them,  the  father,  Henry  Martyn  Dexter,  the  son,  Morton 
Dexter,  and  Professor  Franklin  Bowditch  Dexter  of  Yale 
College  —  Goodwin,  Brown,  Mackennal,  Bartlett,  Griffis, 
Arber,  and  Ames,  besides  historians  like  Hutchinson,  Barry, 
Bancroft,  Hildreth,  and  Palfrey,  who  have  had  to  deal  with 
the  Pilgrims ;  and  many  others,  some  of  whom  like  Neal, 
Campbell,  Byington,  Fiske,  and  Winsor,  if  not  dealing 
directly  with  this  subject,  have  yet  dealt  with  subjects 
which  led  them  to  throw  important  side-lights  upon  it; 
and  biographers  like  Steele,  who  has  written  the  life  of 
Brewster,  and  O.  S.  Davis,  who  has  made  a  fresh  contribu- 
tion to  our  mass  of  Pilgrim  literature  in  his  recent  book 
on  Robinson,  would  seem  to  leave  nothing  unsaid  which 
ought  to  be  said. 


viii  PREFACE 

Why  then  attempt  to  repeat  for  the  hundredth  time 
what  has  been  so  often  and  so  well  set  forth  by  other  and 
eminent  authors?  Why  venture  to  multiply  the  volumes 
—  so  many  and  so  attractive  —  which  already  enrich  our 
libraries  ? 

To  be  frank,  it  is  a  fascinating  and  glorious  story  to 
tell.  It  does  one's  own  soul  good  to  trace  the  footsteps, 
recount  the  experiences,  and  record  the  virtues  of  the  heroic 
men  and  women  who  were  identified  with  the  movement  which 
invested  the  Mayflower  with  an  immortal  interest,  erected 
Plymouth  Rock  into  a  shrine  of  freedom  —  religious  and 
civil  alike  —  and  culminated  in  large  bodies  of  churches 
self- regulating  and  independent  of  the  State,  and  in  our 
glorious  republic.  In  the  light  of  the  fierce  opposition 
they  met,  it  is  impossible  to  rehearse  the  incredible  hard- 
ships which  this  dauntless  band  of  liberty-lovers  had  to 
endure,  the  sublime  steadiness  with  which  they  held  to 
their  faith  and  purpose,  the  loftiness  of  life  and  character 
which  they  illustrated,  and  the  unique  success  with  which 
their  efforts  were  finally  crowned,  without  arriving  at  a 
new  conviction  of  the  value  both  to  the  individual  and  the 
state  of  loyalty  to  conscience  and  a  new  confidence  in  the 
perpetual  presence  and  guiding  energy  of  God  in  human 
affairs. 

But  this,  though  a  sufficient  warrant  for  weaving  the 
facts  into  a  web  of  connected  narrative  for  one's  own  bene- 
fit, or  for  the  benefit  of  small  circles  of  friends,  can  hardly 
be  advanced  as  a  valid  justification  of  publishing  what  may 
have  been  written. 

There  were  really  two  motives  which  led  to  the  writing 
of  this  book. 

One  was  to  gather  and  combine  the  leading  facts,  and 
the  leading  facts  only,  in  the  story  of  this  remarkable 
group  of  men ;  and  then,  with  each  fact  falling  into  its  own 
place,  to  present  them  in  a  form  to  be  easily  grasped  and 
held  in  memory. 

Here  in  our  land  constant  reference  is  made  to  the 
Pilgrims.  Each  succeeding  generation  has  to  learn  anew 
and  for  itself  who  they  were  and  what  they  did.  For  this, 
students  in  our  higher  grades  in  schools  and  colleges  have 


PREFACE  ix 

ample  opportunity.  Boys  and  girls,  however,  whose  school- 
days have  been  few,  and  young  men  and  women  whose  lives 
are  largely  spent  in  stores  and  mills,  and  not  infrequently 
members  of  reading  circles  and  study  classes  of  the  more 
ambitious  sort,  require  an  account  of  this  advance-guard 
of  our  free  institutions  which  is  so  simple  and  direct  that 
it  can  be  easily  mastered.  Many  years  of  intimate  asso- 
ciation with  just  such  learners  as  are  here  described,  and 
of  efforts  to  familiarize  them  with  the  main  features  of 
early  New  England  history,  have  shown  the  indispensable- 
ness  of  books,  which,  while  not  losing  sight  of  the  proper 
chronological  order,  yet  put  those  events  and  incidents  and 
movements,  which  are  of  the  same  class  and  are  naturally 
affiliated,  together,  and  bring  them  before  the  eye  at  a 
single  sitting  and  in  their  entirety.  This  applies  more 
especially  to  the  leading  facts  in  the  experience  of  the  col- 
ony on  this  side  of  the  water.  For  example,  one  who  wishes 
to  know  how  the  Pilgrims  treated  the  Indians,  how  they 
managed  to  meet  the  expenses  of  their  migration  and  work 
free  from  debt,  what  kind  of  schools  they  had  and  when 
they  started  them,  how  they  organized  and  maintained 
their  churches,  what  sort  of  government  they  instituted 
and  what  was  the  spirit  of  their  legislation,  or  anything 
else  which  was  of  vital  concern  to  them  and  is  of  interest  to 
those  who  live  after  them,  ought  to  have  the  information 
laid  before  him  in  a  compact  and  duly  articulated  form. 
To  the  degree  to  which  it  seemed  permissible  this  plan  has 
been  carried  out  in  this  volume. 

The  other  motive  was  a  conviction  that  the  movement  of 
which  these  men  were  the  exponents  ought  to  be  set  forth 
in  an  interpretative  way.  Macaulay  says  that  "  facts  are 
the  mere  dross  of  history,"  and  that  "  the  writer  who  does 
not  explain  the  phenomena  as  well  as  state  them  performs 
only  one  half  of  his  office." 

The  Pilgrims  were  a  simple  folk,  but  they  stood  for  a 
great  and  sacred  cause.  In  all  history  there  are  few  acts 
of  men  so  freighted  with  significance  as  the  coming  from 
the  Old  World  to  the  New  of  this  little  band  of  English 
exiles.  Who  were  these  exiles?  How  came  they  to  be? 
What  was  the  cause  which  they  espoused?     Were  their 


x  PREFACE 

principles  and  actions  principles  and  actions  for  which  it 
was  worth  while  to  suffer  and  make  sacrifices?  Exactly 
what,  in  fine,  were  their  contributions  to  the  progress  of 
society?  These  are  questions  which  may  well  be  asked. 
They  are  questions,  too,  which  ought  to  be  met  with  wise 
and  stimulating  answers.  Facts  speak  louder  than  words ; 
but  facts  speak  loudest  when  words  are  used  to  place  them 
in  their  true  light  and  give  them  their  proper  emphasis. 
Names  and  dates,  causes  and  consequences,  relations  of 
parties  and  successions  of  events  are  important.  But  in 
the  instance  of  these  men,  whose  comprehension  of  liberty 
both  for  Church  and  State  was  so  advanced,  and  whose 
devotion  to  duty  was  so  sublime,  it  is  a  thousandfold  more 
important  to  catch  their  spirit  and  answer  back  to  their 
lives  with  lives  set  aflame  and  kindled  to  white  heat  with 
religious  zeal,  patriotic  devotion,  and  unswerving  loyalty 
to  conscience  by  their  example.  It  was  with  the  purpose 
and  in  the  hope  of  doing  something  in  this  direction  that 
the  work  now  completed  was  undertaken. 

These,  then,  were  the  ends  in  view  in  this  fresh  attempt 
to  tell  the  story  of  the  Pilgrims.  My  own  conclusions  will 
be  stated  freely,  but  little  space  will  be  given  to  clearing 
up  controverted  points  in  history  and  settling  debated 
questions.  All  facts  and  incidents  which  appear  to  be  of 
sufficient  importance  to  lend  interest  to  the  recital,  or  throw 
light  on  men  and  movements,  have  been  given  a  place  in  the 
body  of  the  narrative.  For  these  reasons  it  has  been 
thought  better  not  to  burden  the  pages  of  the  book  with 
foot-notes  and  references.  It  would  be  too  much  to  claim, 
or  to  expect,  that  no  mistakes  have  been  made  in  the  trans- 
fer of  statements  by  other  authors,  or  in  the  apprehension 
in  every  instance  of  the  precise  intent  and  meaning  of  what 
somebody  else  has  said ;  but  the  utmost  care  has  been  taken 
to  make  all  quotation  marks  tell  the  truth,  and  to  treat 
views  differing  from  my  own  with  the  courtesy  and  candor 
to  which  all  honest  opinions  are  entitled. 

It  remains  to  bear  testimony  to  the  deep  personal  satis- 
faction which  the  preparation  of  this  volume  has  brought 
into  my  own  life,  and  to  express  the  trust  that  this  new  set- 
ting of  the  story  of  the  trials  and  triumphs  of  our  Fathers, 


PREFACE  xi 

however  imperfect  and  inadequate  it  may  be  found,  may 
interest  persons  here  and  there  who  otherwise  would  not 
have  pursued  studies  along  this  line,  and  so  would  have 
missed  the  inspiration  which  comes  from  intelligent  and 
sympathetic  contact  with  heroic  souls.  A  more  complete 
surrender  to  the  influence  of  these  men  and  to  the  ideas 
and  aims  for  which  they  stood  is,  in  my  judgment,  a  con- 
summation devoutly  to  be  wished.  For  in  these  times  and 
under  present  tendencies  the  thing  which  we  have  least  to 
fear  is  too  much  enthusiasm  for  Plymouth  Rock. 

F.  A.  NOBLE. 

Evanston,  III.,  May  1,  1907. 


CONTENTS 


Chapter  Page 

I   The  Way  opened  for  the  Pilgrims  ....         1 

Wycliffe  and  the  Lollards  —  The  English  Bible  —  Incoming  of 
Dutch  artisans  —  Holland  an  object  lesson  —  Divine  influences 
abroad  —  Temper  of  the  times. 

II   Persecution  a  Factor  in  Making  the  Pilgrims        17 

Nature  of  the  Reformation  in  England — Discontent  and  conflict 

—  Explanation  of  Elizabeth's  strange  conduct  —  How  injustice 
and  oppression  helped. 

III  The  Pioneers  of  the  Pilgrims 31 

Hooper  and  his  martyrdom  —  Thomas  Cartwright  and  his  ser- 
vices —  Robert  Browne  —  His  merits  and  his  tarnished  fame. 

IV  The  Pilgrims  at  Scrooby 51 

A  sign  of  the  times  —  Scrooby  —  The  old  manor  house  —  A 
marked  Providence  —  Names  of  leaders  —  Clyfton — Brewster 

—  Bradford  —  Robinson  —  Other  exiles  —  The  explanation  of 
these  men. 

V  The  Escape  to  Holland 83 

How  the  Scrooby  Nonconformists  were  treated  —  Resolution  to 
leave  and  hindrances  met  —  Effort  to  reach  Holland  successful. 

VI    EXPERIENCES    AT    AMSTERDAM 95 

Reasons  for  going  to  Amsterdam  —  Amsterdam  held  out  promise 
of  livelihood  —  English-speaking  people  already  at  Amsterdam 

—  Smitten  and  exiled  believers  brought  together  —  Why  Pil- 
grims left  Amsterdam  —  Francis  Johnson  —  John  Smyth  — 
Henry  Ainsworth  —  Strong  desire  to  keep  together  —  Petition 
for  leave  to  settle  at  Leyden. 

VII   The  Pilgrims  at  Leyden 113 

Leyden  —  History  of  the  town  —  The  university  —  Finding 
homes  in  Leyden  —  Settling  down  to  work  —  Locations  chosen 

—  Newcomers  :  Carver,  Winslow,  Brewer,  Allerton,  Cushman, 
Fuller,  Standish  —  Books  printed  and  controversies  stirred  up 


xiv  CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

—  Robinson  in  great  debate  —  Further  activit}'  of  Robinson  — 
Marriages,  citizenship,  interest  in  religious  questions  —  Church 
polity  —  Life  at  Leyden  helpful. 

VIII   Leaving  Leyden 145 

Removal  contemplated  —  Deciding  where  they  should  go  —  How- 
obtain  means  to  carry  out  their  plan  —  Solicitations  by  the  Dutch 

—  Thomas  Weston  and  the  Merchant  Adventurers  —  Articles  of 
agreement  —  Disheartening  change  in  articles  —  Side-lights 
thrown  on  the  Pilgrims  —  Preliminary  points  settled  —  Tender 
religious  services. 

IX   Crossing  the  Ocean 169 

Disappointment,  delay,  and  loss  —  Ready  to  sail  —  Robinson's 
letter  —  Further  hindrances  and  disappointments— Off  at  last 
— Accessions  to  the  colony:  Martin,  Mullins,  Hopkins,  Alden  — 
The  Mayflower  —  Trying  experiences  —  Shadow  and  sunshine 

—  Off  Cape  Cod  —  Where  to  land  —  Safe  at  anchor. 

X   An  Eventful  Month 193 

The  Mayflower  Compact  —  Seeking  a  site  for  settlement  —  The 
first  exploration  —  The  second  exploration  —  The  third  explo- 
ration —  A  significant  observance  of  the  Sabbath  —  Setting  foot 
on  the  famous  rock  —  From  Cape  Cod  to  Plymouth. 

XI   The  First  Winter 221 

Choosing  a  site  for  building  —  Beginning  to  build  —  Plan  of  town 

—  Sickness  and  death  —  Causes  of  sickness  —  Sufferings  of 
survivors  —  A  common  experience  of  colonies  —  Shows  stuff 
of  which  the  Pilgrims  were  made  —  Mishaps  and  narrow  escapes 

—  Return  of  the  Mayflower. 

XII   Making  a  Living 241 

The  supply  producing  force  —  More  discipline  in  store  —  Help  ob- 
tained —  The  trying  period  —  Embarrassing  accessions  —  Aban- 
doning planting  in  common  —  An  alarming  drought— New 
industrial  scheme  justified  —  Lived  simply  —  Cattle  brought 
to  the  colony  —  Health  and  long  life. 

XIII   Paying  their  Debts 261 

Why  in  debt  —  Amount  of  indebtedness  difficult  to  ascertain  — 
First  complaints  at  delay  in  remittances  —  First  remittance  and 
what  came  of  it  —  A  second  remittance  —  Other  futile  attempts 
to  make  returns  —  A  new  financial  basis  necessary  —  The  new 
agreement  —  New  arrangement  inspires  hope  —  Financial  and 
other  readjustments  —  Taught  to  use  wampum  for  currency 

—  Expanding  their  trade  —  Debt  increased  by  bringing  over 


CONTENTS  xv 

Chapter  Page 

Leyden  associates  —  Helpful  accessions  to  the  colony:  Timothy 
Hatherly,  William  Thomas,  John  Jenney,  Thomas  Willet  — 
Free  at  last. 

XIV   Relations  with  the  Indians 287 

Feared  ferocity  of  the  savages  —  Providential  preparation  for 
coming  of  the  Pilgrims  —  A  startling  introduction  —  Samoset's 
welcome  —  Some  account  of  Samoset  —  Squanto  —  Massasoit  — 
Deputation  visits  Massasoit  —  Startling  rumors  —  Massasoit  and 
others  invited  to  visit  colony  —  Clouds  in  the  sky  —  Weston's 
colony  —  Blood  must  be  shed —  The  Pilgrims  just  and  kind  to 
the  Indians. 

XV  Fostering  the  Church 323 

The  two  branches  one  —  The  first  meeting-house  —  Brewster's 
ministry  —  The  Bible  used  —  A  minister  in  prospect  —  Con- 
spiracy of  Lyford  and  Oldam  —  Rev.  Ralph  Smith  —  Roger 
Williams  at  Plymouth  —  Seeking  a  successor  to  Smith  — 
Charles  Chauncey  at  Plymouth  —  A  minister  found  at  length 

—  Incidents  of  interest  —  The  problem  of  church  extension  — 
Other  ministers  and  churches  —  Ralph  Partridge  —  Ichabod 
Wiswell  — Nicholas  Street. 

XVI  Setting  up  Schools 351 

First  mention  of  training  the  young  —  Schools  started  early  — 
Legislation  on  school  question  —  Claim  the  first  free  school  — 
Free  schools  a  glorious  achievement. 

XVII  Development  of  their  Laws 361 

Government  simple  at  the  outset  —  Revision  and  codification  of 
laws  needed  —  System  of  laws  adopted  —  Declaration  of  rights 

—  Some  of  the  specific  laws  of  the  code  —  Other  forms  of  pun- 
ishment —  Change  to  representative  government  —  Jealous  of 
rights  —  Freemen  —  Voting  a  sacred  trust  —  Fines  for  refusing 
to  hold  office  —  Laws  were  growths. 

XVIII  Witches  and  Quakers 379 

Belief  in  witchcraft  universal  —  Only  two  cases  —  Trouble  with 
the  Quakers  —  Why  alarmed  —  First  law  against  Quakers  — 
Further  enactments  —  First  instance  of  punishment  —  Other 
instances  —  No  Quaker  put  to  death  —  Stopped  by  the  king. 

XIX   Confederation  of  the  Colonies 393 

The  colonies  which  came  into  the  union  —  The  basis  of  union  — 
New  articles  of  union  —  Value  of  union  to  Plymouth  —  Settled 
claims  to  disputed  territory —Incidental  benefits  —  Stress  on 
local  rights,  opportunity  to  show  ability  —  Training  secured  for 
future  needs. 


xvi  CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

XX  The  War  with  Philip 409 

Causes  of  the  war  —  Philip  —  Indian  ranks  greatly  reduced  — 
Part  taken  by  Christian  Indians  —  Course  of  the  war  —  War 
swept  back  into  Plymouth  —  End  of  war  in  sight  —  Result  of 
the  war. 

XXI  The  Closing  Years 425 

Andros  and  his  administration  —  Timely  relief  —  An  edifying 
spectacle  —  Plymouth  united  to  Massachusetts  —  A  consum- 
mation to  be  desired. 

XXII  Lessons  Taught  by  the  Pilgrims    ....     435 

Had  exalted  views  of  God  —  Had  a  positive  and  earnest  religion 
—  Laid  great  stress  on  righteous  character  —  Emphasized  civic 
duties  —  Sensitively  alive  to  the  future. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Plymouth  Rock Frontispiece 

Manor  House,  Scrooby Facing  page    58 

Bradford  Cottage,  Austerfield „        „      72 

The  Church  in  Austerfield „        „      72 

The  Little  Street  of  the  Brownists,  Amsterdam     „        „    100 

In  Amsterdam „        „     100 

John  Robinson's  House,  Leyden,  Holland      .     .     „        „    136 
The  Departure  of  the  Pilgrims  from  Delfshaven, 

July,  1620 „        „     168 

Plymouth  in  1622 „        „    228 

The  Pilgrim  Monument,  Plymouth „        „    446 


I 

THE  WAY  OPENED  FOB  THE  PILGRIMS 


The  minds  of  men  having  been  prepared  beforehand,  not  only  by  the 
writings  of  Wycliffe  and  the  martyrdom  of  Huss  and  Jerome,  but  also  by 
the  new  impulse  and  independence  which  had  been  given  to  thought  in 
consequence  of  the  revival  of  learning  then  in  progress  ;  and  by  the 
excitement  which  the  discovery  of  a  new  world,  and  of  new  paths  and 
regions  for  commerce,  had  spread  over  Europe ;  and  the  invention  of 
printing  which  provided  a  new  instrumentality  for  the  diffusion  of  knowl- 
edge and  the  promotion  of  free  enquiry  —  only  a  few  years  elapsed  from 
the  time  when  Luther  in  the  University  of  Wittenburg,  and  Zwingli  in 
the  cathedral  of  Zurich,  made  their  first  efforts,  before  all  Europe 
was  convulsed  with  the  progress  of  a  great  intellectual  and  moral 
emancipation.  —  Leonard  Bacon. 

The  progress  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany,  by  the  preaching  of 
Luther,  Melanchthon,  and  others,  with  the  number  of  books  that  were 
published  in  those  parts,  some  of  which  were  translated  into  English, 
revived  learning,  and  raised  people's  curiosity  to  look  into  the  state  of 
religion  here  at  home.  —  Daniel  Neal. 

The  method  of  Providence  in  history  is  never  magical.  In  propor- 
tion to  the  magnitude  of  the  catastrophe  are  the  length  of  time  and  the 
variety  of  agencies  which  are  employed  in  producing  it.  Events,  because 
they  are  unexpected  and  startling,  are  not  to  be  ascribed  merely  to  some 
proximate  antecedent.  But ...  we  must  take  into  account  the  personal 
qualities  and  the  plastic  agency  of  individuals  not  less  than  the  operations 
of  general  causes.  Especially  if  a  revolution  in  long  established  opinions 
and  habits  of  feeling  is  to  take  place,  there  must  be  individuals  to  rally 
upon  :  men  of  power  who  are  able  to  create  and  sustain  in  others  a  new 
moral  life  which  they  have  first  realized  in  themselves. 

George  P.  Fisher. 


The  Pilgrims 


THE    WAY   OPENED    FOR    THE    PILGRIMS 

THE  Puritan  was  before  the  Pilgrim.  The  Puritan 
was  the  first  stage  in  the  development  of  the  Pilgrim, 
—  the  blossom  of  which  the  Pilgrim  was  the  fruit. 
Not  all  Puritans  were  Pilgrims ;  but,  speaking  in  general, 
all  Pilgrims  were  Puritans.  There  was  an  arrested  Puri- 
tanism, —  a  Puritanism  which,  instead  of  passing  over  into 
Separatism,  became  bitter  against  it  and  did  all  in  its  power 
to  thwart  its  aims ;  but  Puritanism  in  the  sense  of  aspira- 
tion for  more  holiness  of  character,  for  larger  freedom  of 
direct  personal  access  to  God,  and  for  opportunity  for 
wider  usefulness  in  spreading  abroad  a  knowledge  of  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  and  informing  society  with  the  rules 
and  habits  of  righteousness,  was  the  soil  out  of  which  the 
Pilgrim  sprang.  Puritanism,  non-conformity,  separatism, 
exile, — partly  enforced  and  partly  voluntary, — these  were 
the  successive  degrees  through  which  those  men  passed  who 
began  by  wanting  things  sweeter  and  better  in  the  Church 
in  their  own  home-land,  and  who  ended  by  going  away  and 
planting  in  a  foreign  land  a  church  which  they  conceived  to 
be  more  nearly  in  conformity  with  the  plan  and  spirit  of  the 
gospel. 

Had  there  not  been  first  a  Puritan  there  would  have  been 
no  Pilgrim  to  write  a  new  chapter  in  the  story  of  Chris- 
tianity and  human  progress.  Had  there  been  no  Pilgrim 
to  emphasize  with  heroic  daring  and  large  sacrifice  his  sense 
of  the  need  of  reformation  in  the  conduct  of  religious  life 
and  in  the  management  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  Puritanism, 
in  all  probability,  would  have  been  like  one  of  those  western 


4  THE    PILGRIMS 

streams  which  starts  in  the  mountains,  and  is  clear  and 
vigorous  in  its  flow  for  a  while,  but  before  it  reaches  the 
ocean  is  lost  in  the  sands. 

It  is  not  easy  to  fix  definitely  upon  the  beginnings  of 
Puritanism.  It  is  easy  to  trace  the  influences  which  led 
up  to  it,  —  easy  to  detect  signs  of  its  approach,  even  as 
one  can  detect  signs  of  the  coming  spring  while  it  is  yet 
winter,  —  but  just  who  were  the  first  Puritans,  and  just 
where  Puritanism  first  began  to  round  out  into  shape,  are 
fields  of  quest  which  slope  back  into  the  mists  of  the  un- 
explored and  uncertain. 


The  truth  uttered  by  Wycliffe,  so  long  before  the  great 
German  Reformer  had  acted  his  part  in  the  sublime  drama 
of  human  progress,  baffled  and  arrested  though 
Wycliffe         ft  was?  neVer  lost  its  hold  on  the  English  mind, 
and  the  The  light  shed  by  Wycliffe,  who  with  justice 

Lollards  has  been  called  "The  Morning  Star  of  the 
Reformation,"  obstructed  and  refracted  though 
it  was,  never  wholly  faded  out  of  the  English  sky.  The 
seed  scattered  by  Wycliffe,  who  was  following  the  Master 
in  His  spiritual  husbandry,  trodden  underfoot  though  it 
was  by  the  iron  hoof  of  blind  persecution,  never  ceased 
to  hold  in  it  a  germinating  power.  From  Wycliffe's  time 
on  Puritanism  was  in  the  air.  It  was  the  pollen  with 
which  the  wind  was  fertilizing  religious  thought.  By  a 
subtle  chemistry  of  growth  it  was  persistently  pushing  its 
way  through  a  thousand  rootlets  into  the  new  and  expand- 
ing life  of  the  nation.  Like  leaven  in  the  lump,  for  a  hun- 
dred years  and  more  before  Henry  snatched  the  church  of 
his  realm  from  the  greedy  and  defiling  hand  of  the  pope 
that  he  might  bruise  and  besmear  it  in  his  own  clumsy  grasp, 
the  message  which  Wycliffe  declared  from  his  rediscovered 
Bible  had  been  quietly  working  in  the  mental  processes  and 
spiritual  aspirations  of  the  most  devout  of  the  people.  Wy- 
cliffe planted  the  tree  that  bore  the  fruit  —  so  nourishing  to 
life  —  which  subsequent  generations  plucked  and  ate.  The 
time  came  when,  worn  and  weary  and  ready  for  the  "  Well 


THE    PILGRIMS  5 

done  "  which  awaits  faithful  souls  on  the  threshold  of  the 
life  beyond,  he  had  to  lay  aside  his  harp  and  sweep  its  chords 
no  more ;  but  other  hands  took  up  the  instrument  and  touched 
its  strings  to  a  music  which  at  length  thrilled  the  hearts  of 
his  countrymen  and  stirred  them  to  such  high  endeavor 
that  they  were  enabled  to  achieve  moral  and  spiritual  victo- 
ries not  alone  for  themselves,  but  for  the  world.  Though 
dead,  with  ashes  desecrated  and  borne  by  Avon  to  Severn, 
and  from  Severn  to  the  sea,  this  brave  prophet  of  the  Most 
High  still  maintained  his  hold  on  life,  and,  with  a  voice 
which  no  pope  or  potentate  could  hush,  kept  on  speaking 
to  the  mind  and  moral  sense  of  thoughtful  Englishmen. 
The  little  candle  which  he  lighted  was  a  candle  of  the 
Lord,  and  it  sent  its  beams  afar.  It  is  but  a  blind  eye 
which  can  look  on  the  Puritan  and  not  see  Wycliffe  behind 
him. 

The  direct  endeavors  of  Wycliffe  were  greatly  reinforced, 
and  his  personal  influence  was  vastly  extended  by  the  bands 
of  preachers,  known  as  Lollards,  who  went  forth  to  empha- 
size the  truths  which  their  great  leader  had  brought  out 
afresh  from  the  Word  of  God,  and  to  advocate  the  reforms 
which  he  had  set  in  motion.  These  strolling  "  mumblers," 
"  clad,"  as  another  has  described  them,  "  in  long  robes  of 
coarse  red  wool,  barefoot,  with  pilgrim  staff  in  hand,"  going 
up  and  down,  "  setting  forth  the  Word  of  God  wherever  they 
could  find  listeners,"  distributing  hand-copied  "  passages 
from  Wycliffe's  tracts  and  texts  from  the  Bible  among 
tradesmen  and  artisans,  yeomen  and  plough-boys,  to  be 
pondered  over  and  talked  about  and  learned  by  heart," 
made  a  deep  and  lasting  impression  on  large  numbers  of  the 
common  people.  They  were  not  men  of  the  schools,  but 
they  were  men  with  a  message,  and  their  words  set  sensible 
people  to  pondering,  to  looking  about,  to  asking  questions, 
and  to  reaching  conclusions  which  meant  sooner  or  later 
a  better  condition  of  things  in  church  and  state.  They 
popularized  the  teachings  of  Wycliffe.  They  stamped  the 
truths  which  he  uttered  into  the  minds  of  the  more  thought- 
ful in  the  communities  in  which  they  labored  in  a  fashion 
to  make  them  the  heritage  of  succeeding  generations. 
Where  these  preachers  went,  and  were  in  a  measure  wel- 


6  THE    PILGRIMS 

corned,  later  reformers  found  the  soil  prepared  for  their 
sowing. 

This  is  the  view  commonly  held  by  all  well-informed 
writers  on  the  subject.  The  late  Dr.  Mackennal,  in  his 
exceedingly  interesting  and  instructive  little  book  on  "  Eng- 
lish Separatism,"  says  that  the  counties  over  which  the 
influence  of  Lollardy  extended  are  almost  exactly  the  coun- 
ties in  which  martyrs  suffered  under  Mary.  He  says 
further  that  these  "  were  the  counties  where  Puritanism 
was  subsequently  strong,"  and  that  the  "  Home  counties, 
with  Suffolk  and  Norfolk,  where  the  martyr-roll  is  most 
crowded,  are  the  counties  where  Separatism  had  its  origin." 
Maps  have  been  published  which  make  good  this  claim  and 
show  clearly  the  coincidence  of  the  boundaries  which  mark 
the  sowing  of  the  Wycliffe  ideas  and  the  reaping  of  Puritan 
convictions  and  deeds. 

II 

The  Bible,  too,  given  to  the  people  in  their  own  tongue, 
first  in  parts  and  then  in  its  entirety,  by  those  worthy 
successors  of  Wycliffe,  Coverdale  and  Tyndale, 
The  Eng-  ha(]  a  SUDtle  but  very  effective  influence  in 
lish  Bible  shaping  and  forcing  the  issue  which  resulted 
in  the  advanced  Protestantism  of  the  out-and- 
out  Puritan. 

The  great  writers  who  have  had  to  do  with  the  develop- 
ment of  letters  in  the  nation  have  not  failed  to  recognize 
the  formative  influence  of  the  English  Bible  on  English 
literature.  John  Fiske  has  an  illuminating  passage  on  the 
value  to  the  people  at  that  particular  period  in  the  history 
of  the  country  of  the  "  most  original  and  noble  literature  " 
which  was  unfolded  to  them  in  the  translations  of  the 
Scriptures  into  the  English  tongue.  "  At  a  time  when 
there  was  yet  no  English  literature  for  the  common  people, 
this  untold  wealth  of  Hebrew  literature  was  implanted  in 
the  English  mind  as  in  virgin  soil."  Our  author  is  right 
in  adding  that  it  was  a  matter  of  vast  consequence  "  that 
the  first  truly  popular  literature  in  England  —  the  first 
which  stirred  the  hearts  of  all  classes  of  people,  and  filled 


THE    PILGRIMS  7 

their  minds  with  ideal  pictures  and  their  every-day  speech 
with  apt  and  telling  phrases  —  was  the  literature  comprised 
within  the  Bible."  "  To  the  Englishmen  who  listened  to 
Latimer,  to  the  Scotchmen  who  listened  to  Knox,  the  Bible 
more  than  filled  the  place  which  in  modern  times  is  filled 
by  poem  and  song,  by  novel  and  newspaper  and  scientific 
treatise." 

But  the  Bible  brought  within  the  reach  of  the  people  did 
more  than  create  a  taste  and  furnish  inspiration  for  a  match- 
less literature.  It  became  a  system  of  practical  ethics.  Men 
discovered  in  it  an  authoritative  standard  of  right  conduct. 
It  was  a  revelation  from  God,  and  reading  it,  the  more  de- 
vout and  earnest  souls  felt  that  they  were  catching  the  ac- 
cents of  a  divine  voice.  It  was  not  thought  alone  which 
was  touched  and  quickened,  it  was  life.  Literature,  it  may 
be  said  again,  is  a  potent  factor  in  shaping  the  character 
of  any  people.  A  high-toned  literature  helps  very  greatly 
to  make  a  high-toned  nation.  Still,  incalculable  as  was 
the  value  to  literature  of  the  Bible,  rendered  into  their 
mother-tongue  and  made  easily  accessible  through  the 
translations  of  Coverdale  and  Tyndale  —  successful  work- 
ers in  the  same  fertile  field  —  its  value  to  the  English 
people  as  a  regenerating  moral  and  spiritual  force  was 
yet  greater.  At  once  it  became  a  vital  and  uplifting 
power.  Men  were  taken  back  in  their  thoughts  to  the 
divine  image  in  which  they  were  created,  and  given  a 
fresh  sense  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  indi- 
vidual as  well  as  new  notions  of  the  duties  and  obli- 
gations of  lawmakers  and  rulers.  With  the  Bible  open 
to  everybody  who  cared  to  read  it,  or  who  could  be  in- 
duced to  read  it,  the  old  conditions  were  no  longer 
possible.  There  was  then,  as  there  is  now  and  always, 
a  silent  but  tremendous  transforming  energy  in  an  open 
Bible. 

An  open  Bible  is  a  risen  sun,  and  the  potency  and  prom- 
ise of  an  expanding  intelligence  are  in  its  beams.  An  open 
Bible  is  a  proclamation  of  liberty;  and  men  who  read  it 
will  become  more  and  more  impatient  of  all  restraints  im- 
posed on  conscience  and  the  free  exercise  of  natural  rights. 
Tyrants  who  wish  to  be  secure  in  the  practise  of  tyranny 


8  THE    PILGRIMS 

do  well  to  withhold  the  Bible  from  the  hands  of  their  out- 
raged subjects.  Oppressors  who  find  their  pleasure  and 
profit  in  grinding  the  faces  of  the  poor  are  wise  with  the 
wisdom  of  their  kind  in  keeping  the  Bible  a  closed  book. 
Unlike  Tjndale,  who  went  through  the  sharp  pains  of  mar- 
tyrdom, Coverdale  died  in  peace;  but  the  open  Bible,  dis- 
trusted and  opposed  as  it  was  by  so  many  who  ought  to 
have  been  its  advocates,  survived  and  kept  on  its  way  with 
an  energy  that  was  irresistible. 

Ill 

There  were  still  other  influences  at  work  toward  the  same 
end.  Some  of  these,  coming  in  from  the  outside  and  blend- 
ing with  those  which  had  a  home  origin,  were  exceedingly 
effective  in  the  making  of  the  Puritan,  and  after  him  the 
Nonconformist,  the  Separatist,  and  the  Pilgrim. 

Dr.  Griffis  is  surely  right  in  his  strenuous 
Incoming  contention  that  reform  ideas,  in  one  fashion  and 
of  Dutch  another,  were  imported  from  across  the  North 
artisans  gea  jnto  the  more  northern,  the  middle  eastern, 
and  the  southern  counties  of  England,  and  were 
potent  factors  in  determining  the  events  which  followed. 
Not  so  early,  not  so  subtle,  not  so  pervasive  as  the  influ- 
ences which  proceeded  from  the  Oxford  Reformer  and  those 
who  entered  into  the  sacred  inheritance  of  his  thought  and 
aim,  yet  the  influences  which  came  to  the  shores  of  England 
from  Holland  were  not  only  timely  but  to  an  eminent  degree 
helpful. 

For  one  thing  there  was  a  free  intermingling  of  Dutch 
and  English  during  those  years  which  more  immediately 
preceded  the  definite  solidifying  of  Puritan  sentiment  which 
was  immensely  effective  in  stimulating  thought  and  shaping 
opinion.  Dr.  Griffis  condenses  the  facts  into  a  single  para- 
graph when  he  says :  "  With  ten  thousand  English,  Welsh, 
Irish,  and  Scottish  soldiers,  fighting  under  the  red,  white, 
and  blue  flag  of  the  republic ;  thousands  of  British  contrac- 
tors, merchants,  traders,  and  agents  in  the  Low  Countries, 
and  a  hundred  thousand  Netherlanders,  mostly  educated 
people  and  skilled  workmen,  in  the  British  Isles,  relations 


THE    PILGRIMS  9 

between  England  and  Holland  were  close  and  varied." 
One  can  see  at  a  glance  that  it  could  not  be  otherwise. 

Referring  to  this  same  line  of  facts  Professor  Williston 
Walker  says :  "  These  radical  English  efforts  for  a  com- 
plete reformation  had  their  chief  support  in  the  Eastern 
Counties,  especially  in  the  vicinity  of  Norwich  and  London. 
These  regions  had  long  been  the  recipient  of  Dutch  immi- 
gration; and  the  influx  from  the  Netherlands  had  vastly 
increased  during  the  early  reign  of  Elizabeth,  owing  to  the 
tyranny  of  Philip  II.  In  1562  the  Dutch  and  Walloons 
settled  in  England  numbered  30,000.  By  1568  some  5225 
of  the  people  of  London  were  of  this  immigration ;  and  by 
1587  they  constituted  more  than  half  of  the  population 
of  Norwich,  while  they  were  largely  present  in  other  coast 
towns." 

Elizabeth  made  the  relation  between  these  foreigners  and 
her  own  people  still  more  close  than  it  might  have  been 
otherwise  by  requiring  each  Netherland  family  "  to  take 
an  English  apprentice,  so  that  the  country  might  imme- 
diately get  the  benefit  of  continental  superiority  in  science, 
art  and  handicraft." 

Many  of  these  cunning  artisans,  it  is  fair  to  presume, 
entertained  advanced  views  on  the  question  of  freedom  in 
church  and  state.  Close  association  with  them  would  have 
no  inconsiderable  force  in  shaping  the  aspirations  and  aims 
of  men  whose  leanings  were  in  the  direction  of  notions  quite 
other  than  those  held  by  subservient  secretaries  and  time- 
serving prelates.  Minds  ripe  for  change  could  not  help 
being  hurried  to  their  conclusions,  or,  if  their  conclusions 
had  been  already  reached,  confirmed  in  them  by  this  intimate 
intercourse  with  people  who  were  from  the  other  side  of  the 
German  Ocean,  and  who  had  experienced  all  the  bitterness 
and  pain  of  an  inquisitorial  persecution.  At  the  loom,  by 
the  bench,  and  in  the  foundry,  within  the  narrow  homes 
where  manufacturing  was  carried  on,  there  must  have 
been  many  simple  conversations  on  the  same  high  topics 
which  engaged  Luther's  attention  and  of  which  Calvin 
wrote  and  Milton  was  to  sing. 


10  THE    PILGRIMS 


IV 

But  in  the  course  of  time  there  was  something  more  than 
this.  When  these  eastern  and  southern  county  English- 
men lifted  their  eyes  and  looked  beyond  the 
Holland  North    Sea    into    the    Netherlands    they    saw 

an  object-  sights  to  stir  the  blood  and  kindle  the  soul 
lesson  into  a  blaze  of  enthusiasm.     So  soon  as  the 

bigoted  and  cruel  Spaniard  had  been  brought 
to  halt  by  the  indomitable  courage  and  heroic  obstinacy  of 
the  freedom-loving  Dutch,  or  from  the  latter  part  of  the 
sixteenth  century  onward,  Holland  granted  toleration  — 
not  the  widest,  but  enough  for  all  practical  purposes  —  to 
the  different  sects  within  her  borders.  Examples  were  also 
afforded,  especially  by  the  Anabaptists,  of  churches  govern- 
ing themselves  and  settling  policies  and  aims  to  suit  their 
own  ideas  of  rights  and  duties  and  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
hour. 

As  to  Anabaptist  influence  in  shaping  the  ideas  of  early 
English  Congregationalists,  Professor  Walker  does  not 
appear  to  be  willing  to  go  so  far  as  some  others  go  and 
yet  he  does  not  hesitate  to  make  this  statement :  "  Among 
the  workmen  of  Holland  Anabaptist  views  were  widely  dis- 
seminated, and  while  it  would  be  unjustifiable  to  claim 
that  these  exiles  on  English  soil  were  chiefly,  or  largely, 
Anabaptists,  there  were  Anabaptists  among  them,  and  an 
Anabaptist  way  of  thinking  may  not  improbably  have  been 
widely  induced  among  those  who  may  have  been  entirely 
unconscious  of  the  source  from  which  their  impulse  came. 
Certainly  the  resemblances  between  the  Anabaptist  move- 
ments on  the  Continent  and  English  Congregationalism 
in  theories  of  church  polity,  and  the  geographical  possibili- 
ties of  contact  between  the  two,  are  sufficiently  manifest  to 
make  a  denial  of  relationship  exceedingly  difficult." 

In  that  land,  too,  a  man  might  think  aloud.  If  he  chose 
to  do  so  he  might  put  his  thoughts  into  tracts  and  books. 
It  was  a  land  of  the  free  as  well  as  a  home  of  the  brave.  To 
intelligent,  sincere,  and  earnest  onlookers,  only  a  short  dis- 
tance away,  who  were  disloyal  neither  to  king  nor  country 


THE    PILGRIMS  11 

nor  religion,  but  who  wished  simply  to  be  permitted  to  think 
their  own  thoughts,  to  be  faithful  to  their  own  best  concep- 
tions of  truth  and  service,  to  worship  God  according  to  the 
dictates  of  their  own  consciences,  and  without  let  or  hin- 
drance to  publish  and  exchange  views  on  the  compelling 
themes  of  God  and  man,  of  duty  and  destiny,  and  whatever 
else  has  to  do  with  human  welfare,  what  must  all  this  have 
meant?  The  question  answers  itself.  Englishmen  of  the 
worthier  sort,  observing  this  condition  of  things,  must  have 
felt  like  captives,  closely  confined  and  breathing  the  foul  air 
of  a  prison,  while  their  more  fortunate  fellows  were  out  in 
the  open  sunshine  with  liberty  to  come  and  go  at  will.  Hol- 
land was  a  school  in  which  men  of  bright  minds  like  Brew- 
ster, whether  going  there  as  he  did,  or  not,  would  learn 
much  and  fast.  The  laws  and  institutions  of  Holland  were 
an  object-lesson  in  civil  and  religious  liberty ;  and  the  Eng- 
lish were  not  few  who  were  instructed  by  the  great  and 
obvious  teaching. 


It  must  not  be  forgotten,   moreover,   that   this  whole 

movement   which   resulted   first   in   the   Puri- 

Divine  in-     tan,    and    later    in    the    Pilgrim,    was    under 

fluences  a    providential    guidance.       With    the    pene- 

abroad  tration  and  grasp  of  a  true  prophet,  Lowell 

sings : 

"  We  see  but  half  the  causes  of  our  deeds, 
Seeking  them  wholly  in  the  outer  life, 
And  heedless  of  the  encircling  spirit-world 
Which,  though  unseen,  is  felt,  and  sows  in  us 
All  germs  of  pure  and  world-wide  purposes." 

The  Spirit  of  God  brooded  over  the  minds  of  these  men 
as  over  the  old  chaos,  and  gave  form  to  their  thought  and 
direction  to  their  aims.  Their  eyes  were  focused  on  the 
advancing  dawn,  and  beams  of  the  new  day  were  poured  in 
upon  their  minds.  The  Scriptures  were  illuminated  to 
their  understanding,  and  they  came  to  know  the  things  of 
life  and  duty  at  first  hand.  They  had  clear  vision  because 
they  had  open  vision,  and  saw  things  in  the  "  light  of  the 


12  THE    PILGRIMS 

knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ." 
They  had  stout  hearts  because  they  were  inwardly  girded 
by  the  Almighty.  Abraham  and  the  people  whom  he  or- 
ganized into  a  nation  can  be  explained  only  by  a  call  whis- 
pered from  on  high.  We  shall  never  comprehend  Moses 
and  the  work  of  emancipation  which  he  accomplished  until 
we  interpret  him  by  the  burning  bush.  Paul  is  a  riddle 
which  no  man  can  guess  until  proper  significance  is  at- 
tached to  the  splendor  which  smote  him  to  the  earth  and  the 
Voice  which  spoke  to  him  there  at  the  gate  of  Damascus. 
The  Pilgrim  caught  his  deepest  and  finest  inspiration  from 
God;  and  the  key  which  unlocks  and  exposes  the  secret 
of  what  he  was  and  what  he  did  is  the  complete  way  in  which 
he  allowed  the  Spirit  to  enter  all  the  chambers  of  his  soul 
and  direct  and  dominate  his  life. 


VI 

Along  with  the  forces  and  influences  here  specified,  or 
rather  including  both  them  and  many  others,  there  was  a 

temper  of  the  times,  slowly  but  surely  emerg- 
Temper  of  [ng  out  0f  a]j  tne  passionate  longings  and 
the  times       confused  wrestling  of  the  period,   which  was 

in  ill  accord  with  the  old  traditions  and 
usages,  and  which  clearly  foretokened  a  new  order  of 
things.  There  was  "  the  sound  of  marching  in  the  tops 
of  the  mulberry-trees  "  which  indicated  the  approach  of  a 
host  to  be  reckoned  with  by  the  enemies  of  truth  and 
righteousness  and  a  conflict  which  should  shake  the  land. 
Oliver  Cromwell  had  not  yet  come  in  sight,  but  he  was  near 
at  hand,  and  the  obstinate  Stuart  dynasty  which  had  in- 
herited the  fatal  legacy  of  lust  of  dominion  and  "  divine 
right  of  kings  "  from  the  past  was  to  topple  to  its  fall. 
The  songs  of  Chaucer,  as  well  as  the  sermons  of  Wycliffe, 
long  dormant  and  for  a  hundred  years  apparently  forgot- 
ten, were  recurring  with  a  fresh  energy  to  the  minds  of  men, 
and  "  the  brawney  hunt-loving  monk,"  "  the  wanton  friar," 
"  the  pardoner  with  his  wallet  '  bret  full  of  pardons,  come 
from  Rome  all  hot,' "  were  losing  caste  in  the  public 
estimation. 


THE    PILGRIMS  13 

It  was  only  natural  that  restlessness  among  the  people 
and  opposition  to  the  insufferable  conditions  then  existing 
should  be  more  pronounced  with  reference  to  ecclesiastical 
misrule  and  oppression  than  with  reference  to  civil  tyranny. 
There  had  been  democracy  in  Greece,  and  Rome  was  once  a 
republic  in  name,  and  central  and  western  Europe  had 
known  free  cities,  and  a  commonwealth  fed  and  fostered 
by  the  bracing  air  of  Switzerland  had  sprung  up  in  the 
later  times  at  Geneva;  but  a  search  of  the  centuries  re- 
vealed no  great  and  commanding  examples  of  civil  affairs 
directed  by  the  people  and  for  the  people.  There  had  been 
eminently  wise  and  patriotic  heads  of  nations,  like  Alfred 
and  Charlemagne,  though  the  achievements  of  these  men 
and  their  contributions  to  an  enduring  civilization  were  not 
so  well  known  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  as  now ; 
but  there  were  no  illustrious  sovereigns  who  had  been  made 
sovereigns  by  the  free  and  intelligent  choice  of  their  sub- 
jects, and  who,  thus  chosen,  had  administered  public  affairs 
solely  in  the  interest  of  their  subjects,  to  whom  it  was  pos- 
sible to  point  in  the  assurance  that  their  just  and  benefi- 
cent reigns  would  stand  out  in  marked  contrast  to  the 
prevailing  customs  of  kings  and  emperors. 

But  so  soon  as  the  Bible  was  placed  within  reach  of  the 
people,  and  men  began  to  read  and  weigh  its  statements 
for  themselves,  it  was  seen  how  wide  had  been  the  departure 
in  the  management  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  from  the  primi- 
tive ideas  and  methods.  What  a  gulf  of  difference  the  com- 
parison revealed  between  selfish  and  unholy  priests,  between 
bishops  and  archbishops  and  popes  with  their  greeds  and 
ambitious  and  countless  political  intrigues,  and  the  divine 
Master,  surrounded  and  followed  by  the  apostles  whom  he 
called  about  him  and  sent  out  to  do  his  work !  How  unlike 
in  its  spirit  and  rules  and  aims  had  the  Church  of  the  later 
times  come  to  be  to  the  Church  of  the  early  times !  Peter 
and  Paul  and  James  and  John  were  not  stall-fed  bishops ; 
and  though  they  spoke  with  authority  they  did  not  attempt 
to  lord  it  over  God's  heritage.  There  came  to  be  a  convic- 
tion, wide-spread,  deep-seated,  and  which  was  all  the  time 
increasing  in  intensity,  that  reform,  even  in  spheres  where 
some  measure  of  reform  had  been  effected,  was  still  de- 


14  THE    PILGRIMS 

manded  and  must  be  made  more  radical  and  thoroughgoing. 
The  high  business  in  which  Wycliffe  and  Huss  and  Luther 
engaged  had  not  been  carried  on  to  completeness ;  and  so 
long,  on  the  one  hand,  as  liberty  of  conscience  was  denied  to 
sincere  and  devout  souls,  and  so  long,  on  the  other  hand,  as 
the  men  who  held  ecclesiastical  positions  were  so  ignorant 
and  stupid  that  they  could  not  teach,  or  were  so  extor- 
tionate and  shamelessly  corrupt  that  their  lives  were  a  cruel 
mockery  of  the  faith  which  they  avowed  and  a  sore  hin- 
drance to  the  advance  of  Christianity,  agitation  must  be 
kept  up  and  aggressive  movements  continued  and  vital 
issues  forced. 

At  the  same  time  the  prevailing  discontent  was  not  con- 
fined to  religious  circles,  nor  did  it  all  originate  with  men 
who  wanted  a  better  chance  to  show  their  loyalty  to  Jesus 
Christ  in  worship  and  in  work.  The  charter  obtained  from 
King  John  at  Runnymede  was  not  only  an  inspiring  mem- 
ory but  a  living  fact.  Down  to  the  reign  of  Henry  VI, 
that  great  instrument  of  liberty  had  been  confirmed  thirty- 
seven  times.  Its  three  leading  provisions  —  that  no  freeman 
should  be  arraigned  and  imprisoned  except  in  accordance 
with  custom  or  the  law  of  the  realm,  that  justice  was 
neither  to  be  sold  nor  withheld,  and  that  taxes  were  to  be 
imposed  only  by  the  consent  and  authority  of  Parliament  — 
in  the  thought  of  the  most  intelligent  and  patriotic  and 
freedom-loving  of  the  people  had  become  foundation- 
stones  of  the  civil  structure  of  the  English  nation.  Man  in 
the  dignity  and  power  of  his  simple  manhood  was  moving  to 
the  front.  The  rights  of  man  were  acquiring  new  recogni- 
tion and  sacredness.  The  terrific  struggle  which  had  taken 
place  in  Holland  was  a  thought-breeder,  and  in  elect  souls 
throughout  Europe  it  kindled  new  or  revived  old  aspirations 
for  freedom  and  self-government. 

Hence  the  restlessness  and  discontent  in  both  church  and 
state,  and  the  launching  of  the  controversy,  which  had  its 
origin  in  the  religious  dissatisfaction  and  aspiration  of  the 
people,  into  the  surging  sea  of  national  politics.  At  bottom 
the  question  of  Puritanism  was  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical ; 
but  because  of  the  organic  relation  of  church  and  state  in 
England  it  had  to  be  wrought  out  and  settled  in  the  arena 


THE    PILGRIMS  15 

of  party  controversy.  There  was  no  wit  or  force  to  arrest 
the  conflict.  The  hour  was  ripe  for  a  radical  change  in  the 
management  of  ecclesiastical  and  civil  affairs  alike,  and  a 
step  forward  was  necessary  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of 
the  English  nation  and  the  progress  of  mankind. 


II 


PERSECUTION   A   FACTOR   IN   MAKING   THE 
PILGRIMS 


It  seems  to  be  a  law  of  human  nature  that  no  evil  is  arrested  till  it  becomes 
unbearable.  —  Charles  W.  Elliott. 

,  >  ye 

And  to  consume  the  truth  of  God,  I  tell  you 

That  every  flame  is  a  loud  tongue  of  fire 

To  publish  it  abroad  to  all  the  world 

Louder  than  tongues  of  men.  —  Henby  W.  Longfellow. 

This  is  the  secret  of  the  opposition  of  the  English  Church  to  Puritanism 
and  Independence.  The  Church,  like  that  of  Rome,  had  virtually  assumed 
its  own  infallibility.  ...  It  had  interwoven  the  hierarchy  with  the  whole 
temporal  Constitution  of  the  realm.  And  the  test  of  loyalty  was  undeviating 
conformity  to  the  canons  of  the  Church  and  implicit  obedience  to  the  mandates 
of  the  crown.  —  John  Stetson  Barry. 

By  no  artifice  of  ingenuity  can  the  stigma  of  persecution,  the  worst 
blemish  of  the  English  Church,  be  effaced  or  patched  over.  Her  doctrines, 
we  well  know,  do  not  tend  to  intolerance.  She  admits  the  possibility  of 
salvation  out  of  her  own  pale.  But  this  circumstance,  in  itself  honorable 
to  her,  aggravates  the  sin  and  the  shame  of  those  who  persecuted  in  her 
name.  —  Thomas  Babington  Macaulay. 

Few  people  are  wise  enough  to  learn  the  economic  value  of  justice. 

Booker  T.  Washington. 

So  shall  the  world  go  on, 
To  good  malignant,  to  bad  men  benign; 
Under  her  own  weight  groaning;  till  the  day 
Appear  of  respiration  to  the  just 
And  vengeance  to  the  wicked.  —  John  Milton. 


II 

PERSECUTION  A  FACTOR  IN  MAKING  THE 
PILGRIMS 

THE  story  of  the  making  of  the  Pilgrims  is  yet  to  be 
told.  For  what  has  gone  before  has  to  do  simply 
with  the  diffusion  of  the  knowledge  which  would 
enable  men  to  proceed  intelligently  with  the  presentation 
of  motives  to  right  and  courageous  action,  and  the  blazing 
of  a  path  through  the  tangled  thickets  of  superstition  and 
routine  and  corruption  and  every  form  of  tyranny  and  in- 
justice, out  into  the  open  world  of  truth  and  freedom.  At 
the  risk  of  walking  along  avenues  which  will  need  to  be 
retrodden,  and  saying  things  which  will  have  to  be  said 
over  again,  we  must  pause  here  long  enough  to  get  a  true 
historical  setting  for  our  narrative,  and  a  clear  under- 
standing of  the  exact  points  in  dispute  and  the  real  causes 
which  led  up  to  the  fierce  conflict  between  Conformity  and 
Dissent  and  issued  in  the  Pilgrims  in  America. 


The  Reformation  in  England,  it  needs  to  be  kept  in  mind, 
was  of  a  double  nature.  It  was  a  religious  reformation, 
and  it  was  a  political  reformation.  The  move- 
Nature  of  ment  to  improve  the  condition  of  things  in  the 
the  Befor-  religious  world  began,  as  we  have  seen,  with 
mation  in  Wycliffe,  about  two  centuries  before  Luther. 
England  ^he  movement  to  sever  the  government  of 
England  from  the  domination  of  the  papal 
power  took  form  and  was  pushed  forward  to  a  victorious 
consummation,  under  Henry  Vin.  The  measures  adopted 
by  Henry  were  followed  up  and  confirmed  by  Edward  VI 
and  Queen  Elizabeth. 


20  THE    PILGRIMS 

It  will  be  recalled  that  Henry  VIII,  after  his  break  with 
Pope  Clement  VII  over  the  question  of  his  divorce  from 
Catherine  of  Aragon  and  his  marriage  to  Anne  Boleyn, 
persuaded  Parliament  to  permit  him  to  declare  himself  the 
head  of  the  national  church.  Mary,  who,  on  her  accession 
to  sovereignty,  did  her  best  to  undo  and  reverse  what  her 
father  Henry  and  her  brother  Edward  had  done  for  the 
advance  of  Protestantism,  secured  the  repeal  of  the  measure 
her  father  had  induced  Parliament  to  enact. 

Concerning  this  repeal,  however,  Hallam,  in  his  "  Consti- 
tutional History,"  significantly  remarks :  "  Her  Parliament, 
so  obsequious  in  all  matters  of  religion,  adhered  with  a  firm 
grasp  to  the  possession  of  the  church  lands ;  nor  could  the 
papal  supremacy  be  reestablished  until  a  sanction  was 
given  to  their  enjoyment."  The  pope  at  Rome  might 
have  his  way  once  more,  if  Mary  had  set  her  heart  on 
restoring  to  him  this  privilege,  in  matters  of  faith  and  cere- 
mony ;  but  lands  which  had  been  confiscated  from  ecclesias- 
tical ownership,  and  turned  over  to  the  possession  of  the 
English  aristocracy,  were  quite  another  matter;  and  it 
would  not  do  for  Parliament  to  attempt  to  disturb  rights  so 
sacred!  When  was  a  genuine  Britisher,  whether  under 
one  flag  or  another,  ever  known  willingly  to  give  up  a 
square  foot  of  mother  earth?  Besides,  these  confiscated 
monastery  lands  comprised  not  less  than  one-fifth  of  the 
whole  area  of  the  realm. 

But  as  parliaments  in  those  days,  save  in  interests  which 
touched  the  pockets  of  the  members,  were  little  more  than 
instruments  for  registering  the  sovereign's  will,  Elizabeth 
easily  constrained  her  lawmakers  to  reenact  the  statute  of 
Henry.  The  authority  in  church  matters  previously  vested 
in  the  pope  was  now  vested  in  the  queen.  The  queen  was 
head  of  the  church,  and  her  power  in  all  that  concerned 
the  church  was  well-nigh  limitless. 

As  Dr.  Bacon  has  stated  in  substance,  all  the  great  ec- 
clesiastical dignities  and  thousands  of  the  humbler  benefices 
were  at  the  disposal  of  the  government.  The  people,  ex- 
cept in  a  few  anomalous  instances,  were  denied  any  voice 
in  the  appointment  of  their  parish  ministers.  There  could 
be  no  synod  or  convocation,  general  or  diocesan,  with  a  lay 


THE    PILGRIMS  21 

representation,  to  regulate  matters  of  common  interest. 
Convocations,  even  of  the  clergy,  could  assemble  only  at  the 
command  of  the  sovereign.  When  assembled,  these  convoca- 
tions could  engage  in  business  only  under  the  sovereign's 
particular  warrant. 

It  will  not  take  long  to  see  that  the  only  advantage  the 
church,  or  rather,  to  speak  more  accurately,  the  Christian 
people  of  the  land,  had  under  the  new  condition  of  things 
over  the  old,  was  a  pope  near  at  hand,  and  not  far  away  as 
at  Rome,  and  a  chance  to  fight  their  battles  for  religious 
freedom  and  the  sacred  rights  of  conscience  on  their  own 
ground  and  under  their  own  cherished  flag. 

II 

The  outcome  was  just  what  might  have  been  anticipated. 
Here  were  the  conditions  of  inevitable  discontent  and  vigor- 
ous protest.  Discontent  arose  and  protests 
Discontent  were  uttered.  With  self-respect  enough  and 
and  vitality  enough  in  the  church  to  hold  it  to- 

conflict  gether,  and  keep  it  in  any  sort  of  mood  for 

bearing  witness  to  the  faith  and  pushing  any 
kind  of  religious  activity,  there  would  be  sure  to  be  some 
voices  to  cry  out  against  the  woful  lack  of  spirituality,  and 
the  perversion  of  religious  belief  and  the  whole  machinery 
of  a  great  religious  organization  to  the  ends  of  secular 
ambition. 

In  this  instance  the  voices  were  clear  and  loud.  It  was 
not  enough  that  the  visible  head  of  the  church  should  be 
changed,  and  that  men  should  look,  not  to  the  Roman 
pontiff,  but  to  the  head  of  the  nation  at  Westminster,  for 
direction  in  things  spiritual,  but  they  wanted  the  old  leaven 
of  Romish  corruption,  down  to  the  last  particle  of  it, 
purged  out,  and  every  trace  of  superstition  and  idolatry 
forever  removed. 

The  Act  of  Uniformity  which  was  passed  soon  after 
Elizabeth  ascended  the  throne,  and  which  established  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  as  the  only  form  for  the  worship 
of  God  by  a  religious  assembly,  and  made  it  an  offense 
severely   punishable  for  a  minister  to   deviate  from  the 


22  THE    PILGRIMS 

rubrics,  gave  fresh  and  alarming  occasion  for  protest,  and 
furnished  a  battle-cry  to  all  adherents  of  Puritanism,  and 
did  much  to  cement  them  into  unity.  When  the  time  had 
come  in  the  estimation  of  the  politic  queen  for  the  rigid 
enforcement  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  there  was  a  spirit  of 
resistance  abroad  which  was  just  as  determined  that  the  act 
should  not  be  enforced. 

The  Act  of  Uniformity  was  accompanied  and  supple- 
mented by  an  Act  of  Supremacy.  Under  this  law  the  Ec- 
clesiastical Establishment  of  England  was  finally  separated 
from  the  See  of  Rome,  and  the  queen  was  empowered  to 
set  up  a  court,  which  came  in  time  to  be  known  as  the 
"  High  Commission  for  Causes  Ecclesiastical."  It  differed 
little  from  other  inquisitions  save  that  it  was  English  and 
not  Spanish,  and  was  conducted,  not  by  Catholics,  but  by 
Protestants. 

This  "  High  Commission  "  had  power  to  make  inquiries 
respecting  heretical  opinions,  seditions,  books,  contempts, 
conspiracies,  false  rumors  or  talks.  It  might  punish  per- 
sons for  absenting  themselves  from  church.  It  could  take 
away  their  livings  from  ministers  who  held  doctrines  con- 
trary to  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles.  It  could  put  suspected 
persons  under  oath  and  examine  them.  Often  these  exami- 
nations were  conducted  by  a  series  of  questions  so  shrewdly 
designed  to  trap  their  prey  that  Lord  Burleigh,  who, 
though  prime  minister  of  England,  was  not  in  sympathy 
with  Whitgift,  the  primate  and  the  chief  agent  in  enforcing 
this  statute  of  persecution,  thought  the  proceeding  left  the 
inquisitors  of  Philip  II  and  the  whole  line  of  popes  from 
Paul  IV  to  Clement  VIII  quite  behind  in  cunning  and 
malignity. 

Bancroft  in  his  splendid  chapter  on  "  The  Pilgrims," 
speaking  of  what  was  taking  place  at  this  time  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  this  commission,  says:  "  Subscriptions  were 
now  required  to  points  which  before  had  been  eluded;  the 
kingdom  rung  with  the  complaints  for  deprivations ;  the 
most  learned  and  diligent  of  the  ministry  were  driven  from 
their  places ;  and  those  who  were  introduced  to  read  the 
liturgy  were  so  ignorant  that  few  of  them  could  preach. 
Did  men  listen  to  their  deprived  pastors  in  the  recesses 


THE    PILGRIMS  23 

of  forests,  the  offense,  if  discovered,  was  visited  with  fines 
and  imprisonments.  ...  In  vain  did  the  sufferers  murmur ; 
in  vain  did  Parliament  disapprove.  .  .  .  The  archbishop 
would  have  deemed  forbearance  a  weakness ;  and  the  queen 
was  ready  to  interpret  any  freedom  in  religion  as  a  treas- 
onable denial  of  her  supremacy." 

The  simple  fact  is  that  this  law  of  Supremacy,  as  inter- 
preted and  enforced  by  the  High  Commission,  was  a  horri- 
ble despotism,  and  meant  that  no  Nonconformist  could 
have  shelter  for  his  nonconformity  under  the  English 
Constitution. 


Ill 

The  surprising  as  well  as  painful  thing  in  all  this  is  that 
it  occurred  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  Elizabeth  was  a 
Protestant  —  or  at  least  she  was  popularly 
Elizabeth's  supposed  to  be.  In  the  tremendous  contest  then 
anomalous  waging  in  Europe  all  her  larger  interests  were 
attitude  on  -the  side  of  Protestantism.    We  are  not  as- 

tonished at  anything  Henry  did  after  he  had 
fairly  begun  his  strange  career.  Mary  was  likewise  self- 
consistent,  and  her  actions  were  in  line  with  what  might 
have  been  anticipated.  But  Elizabeth's  conduct  grieves 
and  shocks  us.  It  was  inhuman  and  it  was  incongruous. 
The  more  we  dwell  on  the  record  the  more  it  excites  our 
amazement.  For  though  a  capricious  piece  of  womanhood, 
and  even  at  this  late  day  not  easily  to  be  classified,  Eliza- 
beth was  a  great  and  distinguished  queen.  It  is  impossible 
to  recur  to  the  period  of  English  history  of  which  she  was 
the  brilliant  center  without  experiencing  a  glow  of  enthu- 
siasm which  sets  all  the  pulses  to  beating  more  quickly  and 
causes  the  whole  soul  to  swell  with  a  pardonable  pride. 

It  was  the  age  of  Shakespeare,  Spenser,  Bacon,  Sidney, 
and  Raleigh.  Who  can  foresee  a  day  so  bright  that  some 
of  these  names  will  not  shine  like  stars  of  the  first  magnitude 
in  the  firmament  of  English  literature?  It  was  the  era  of 
Hawkins  and  Drake.  Nelson,  Farragut,  Dewey,  and  Togo 
have  since  plowed  the  seas  with  their  mighty  battle-ships, 
and  smitten  enemies  with  the  fierceness  of  irresistible  torna- 


24  THE    PILGRIMS 

does,  and  won  victories  whose  fame  will  make  their  names 
immortal;  but  what  victories  will  ever  be  so  resplendent 
that  men  will  forget  the  glory  of  Cadiz  in  1587,  or  the 
dauntless  courage  with  which  the  Invincible  Armada  was 
met,  and  by  the  signal  aid  of  God's  providence,  overthrown 
and  destroyed  in  1588? 

One  must  go  back  to  the  age  of  Pericles  in  Athens,  when 
every  branch  of  industry  was  carried  to  perfection,  and 
commerce  was  flourishing,  and  elegance  and  magnificence 
alike  marked  the  life  of  the  people,  and  the  Parthenon  was 
rising  in  its  beauty,  and  Phidias  and  Socrates  and  Sopho- 
cles were  dominating  thought;  or  to  the  later  age  of  Au- 
gustus in  Rome,  when  Virgil  and  Horace  were  lighting  up 
the  world  of  letters  with  their  genius  and  cultivation,  and 
skilled  architects  were  transforming  a  city  of  brick  into  a 
city  of  marble,  and  the  marvelous  prosperity  and  order 
of  a  mild  tyranny  were  reconciling  the  influential  classes 
to  the  loss  of  liberty,  to  find  anything  like  a  parallel  to  the 
illustrious  age  of  Elizabeth.  Rather,  perhaps,  one  must 
move  forward  to  the  remarkable  period  of  Victoria,  with 
the  swift  ships  and  cunning  looms,  the  forges,  the  electrical 
discoveries  and  appliances,  and  the  Gladstones,  Tennysons, 
Darwins,  Livingstones,  and  Florence  Nightingales  which 
characterized  and  adorned  the  period,  to  find  a  suitable 
resemblance  to  the  splendor  of  the  Elizabethan  era.  It 
was  a  creative  stage  in  the  development  of  national  thought 
and  life.  It  was  a  time  when  the  minds  of  the  people  were 
aflame  with  intense  heats,  and  all  hearts  were  big  with 
resolution,  and  a  new  spirit  was  taking  possession  of  the 
English  world. 

Nevertheless,  through  one  of  those  perplexing  inconsist- 
encies of  which,  unfortunately,  history  reveals  too  many, 
it  was  under  the  rule  of  Elizabeth,  the  Protestant  queen  — 
and  in  the  midst  of  mental  activity  so  intense  and  excep- 
tional in  fruitfulness  that  the  story  of  it  loses  none  of  its 
attractiveness  by  the  passing  of  time,  and  when  the  nation 
was  making  for  itself  a  record  of  imperishable  renown  — 
that  the  prisons  of  London  were  crowded  with  Protestant 
believers,  and  the  public  executioners  were  busy  with  rope 
and  torch  hurrying  into  eternity  the  souls  of  men  who  were 


THE    PILGRIMS  25 

cultivated,  brave,  true,  and  loyal,  and  whose  only  offense 
was  their  earnest  faith  in  Christ  and  their  desire  to  wor- 
ship God  in  the  simplest  and  most  direct  way.  When  these 
transactions  were  taking  place  the  heroic  vice-admiral  of 
England  was  humiliating  Catholic  pretensions  and  defeat- 
ing Catholic  schemes  by  winning  his  signal  triumphs  over 
the  Spanish  fleet.  Over  in  the  Netherlands,  in  a  conflict 
which  had  all  the  nations  of  Europe  for  interested  onlookers, 
with  Philip  II  and  the  Duke  of  Alva  on  one  side,  and 
on  the  other  the  ever-famous  Prince  of  Orange,  Philip 
Sidney,  whom  the  queen  graciously  called  "  the  jewel  of  her 
dominions,"  was  sacrificing  his  precious  life  in  protest 
against  Romish  aggressions  and  in  vindication  of  the  rights 
of  conscience.  But  while  Drake  was  overcoming  the  forces 
of  Catholic  Spain,  and  Sidney  was  dying  for  the  Protestant 
faith  for  which  it  was  fondly  supposed  Elizabeth  and  her 
English  people  had  come  to  stand,  contemptible  spies  and 
ecclesiastical  courts  not  less  contemptible,  and  jailers  and 
hangmen  were  doing  all  in  their  power  to  prevent  men 
and  women  from  coming  to  Christ  in  the  spirit  and  after  the 
method  mapped  out  in  the  New  Testament,  and  worshiping 
God  and  meeting  the  grave  responsibilities  of  discipleship 
in  a  way  to  harmonize  with  the  whisperings  of  the  still, 
small  voice  in  the  soul. 

For  no  other  crime  than  this  John  Copping  and  Elias 
Thacker  were  confined  in  prison  for  seven  years,  and  then 
executed  in  the  quiet  old  town  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds.  For 
no  other  crime  than  this  Barrowe  and  Greenwood  and  Penry 
were  put  to  death  in  London. 

There  were  others,  not  publicly  executed,  who  were  just 
as  truly  martyrs  to  the  faith.  They  were  the  men  and 
women  who  were  dragged  from  their  humble  homes,  and 
shut  up  in  "  damp,  vermin-haunted  and  fever-smitten  dun- 
geons," and  compelled  to  remain  there  till  their  lives  were 
slowly  worn  out.  Dr.  Dexter  gives  a  list  of  twenty-five  — 
twenty  men  and  five  women  —  who  in  this  way  paid  the  pen- 
alty of  their  convictions.  What  stories  of  cruelest  wrong 
the  stones  of  old  Tyburn  and  Newgate  could  tell  had  they 
tongues ! 

The  conflict  was  kept  up  through  the  entire  reign  of 


26  THE    PILGRIMS 

Elizabeth,  only  to  be  continued  with  the  same  desperate 
determination  by  both  sides  on  the  accession  of  James  I  to 
power.  The  authorities  were  bound  there  should  be  no 
Separatist  assemblies  for  worship  and  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures  and  mutual  edification,  and  the  Separatists, 
fully  assured  of  God's  approval,  were  bound  there  should  be 
such  assemblies. 

IV 

How  account  for  this  strange  attitude  of  the  queen? 
The  explanation  furnished  by  Arber  in  his  "  Story  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  "  is  the  only  adequate  one. 
Explana-  Backed  by  Froude,  who  in  this  instance  seems 
tion  of  to  be  right,  he  declares  that  Elizabeth  had 

queen's  nothing  of  the  Puritan  in  her.      She  was   a 

strange  nationalist.     Quoting  Froude  he  says :  "  '  In 

conduct  hep  birth,  she  was  the  symbol  of  the  revolt 

from  Papacy.  She  could  not  reconcile  herself 
with  Rome  without  condemning  the  marriage  from  which 
she  sprung;  but  her  interest  in  Protestantism  was  limited 
to  political  independence.  .  .  .  She  would  permit  no  au- 
thority in  England  which  did  not  center  in  herself.  The 
Church  should  be  a  department  of  the  state,  organized  by 
parliament,  and  ruled  by  the  national  tribunals.  .  .  . 
There  should  be  no  conventicles  and  no  chapels  to  be  the 
nurseries  of  sedition.'  " 

Other  considerations  brought  forward  by  Arber  are  illu- 
minating and  furnish  clues  to  the  mystery  of  the  queen's 
conduct. 

To  begin  with,  three-fourths  of  her  subjects  were  Roman 
Catholics.  Out  of  the  almost  five  millions  of  people  who 
made  up  the  population  of  her  realm,  less  than  a  million  and 
a  quarter  had  broken  with  the  church  of  which  the  pope 
at  Rome  was  the  acknowledged  head  and  exponent.  This 
was  enough  to  put  any  Protestant  ruler,  though  thor- 
oughly sincere  and  earnest,  at  a  serious  disadvantage.  A 
ruler  so  wary,  and  in  many  respects  so  unscrupulous,  as 
this  most  brilliant  of  all  the  sovereigns  who  have  occupied 
the  British  throne  from  Alfred  to  Edward  VII,  would  find 


THE    PILGRIMS  27 

in  this  unequal  division  of  her  people  on  the  lines  of  faith 
abundant  occasion  for  political  trimming,  and  for  much 
that  was  more  heinous  than  mere  adroitness. 

In  addition  to  this,  Elizabeth  had  living  illustration  close 
at  hand  of  what  must  have  seemed  to  her  the  fatal  conse- 
quences of  allowing  religion  to  become  the  basis  of  internal 
dissensions  in  her  kingdom. 

In  France,  the  Huguenots,  instead  of  being  suppressed 
at  the  outset  and  rendered  harmless  by  annihilation,  were 
permitted  to  grow  into  a  political  power  as  well  as  a  theo- 
logical and  church  party,  and  thus  to  threaten  the  stability 
of  the  government  and  the  harmony  of  the  state.  This 
unwise  toleration,  as  she  no  doubt  thought  it,  had  fostered 
sectarian  antagonisms  and  civil  feuds,  had  drenched  the 
land  in  blood,  had  arrested  industry  and  checked  the  flow  of 
prosperity  and  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  and  in  every 
way  had  detracted  from  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  the 
people  and  the  dignity  and  power  of  the  throne.  In  her 
dominions,  if  she  could  help  it,  there  was  to  be  no  repetition 
of  this  French  folly.  Wheels  within  wheels  were  no  part  of 
her  idea  of  government. 

The  Netherlands  presented  the  same  warning  spectacle. 
Under  one  flag  there  were  two  hostile  camps.  It  was  Prot- 
estant against  Catholic  and  Catholic  against  Protestant. 
Not  only  was  the  power  of  the  nation  weakened,  but  the 
unity  of  the  nation  as  well ;  and  every  great  national  inter- 
est was  put  in  jeopardy  by  these  religious  factions. 

England  must  be  kept  clear  of  the  peril  of  a  divided 
church.  She  was  the  head  of  the  church,  and  her  headship 
must  be  recognized,  and  there  must  be  no  departure  from 
uniformity  in  the  public  worship  of  God. 

Over  and  above  all  else  —  the  most  weighty  reason,  in  all 
likelihood,  for  the  course  she  pursued  —  is  the  fact  that 
Elizabeth  was  constrained  by  circumstances  to  have  Spain 
evermore  in  her  mind.  At  no  time  could  she  forget  that  the 
little  "  Sea-Girt  Isle,"  over  whose  destinies  she  presided,  had 
a  tremendous  rival  and  an  enemy  of  well-nigh  irresisti- 
ble force  right  at  her  doors.  At  no  time  could  she  forget 
that  this  enemy,  many-eyed  and  hundred-handed,  was 
watching  every  movement  England  made,  and  stood  ready 


28  THE    PILGRIMS 

at  the  first  opportune  moment  to  batter  down  her  walls 
and  overrun  her  territory  and  despoil  her  wealth  and 
glory.  The  ambition  of  Spain  was  boundless.  It  was  the 
desire  of  her  kings  to  become  sole  masters  of  the  Western 
world.  Only  England  and  the  Netherlands  could  thwart 
this  scheme  of  wide  and  irresponsible  sovereignty  and 
prevent  one  of  the  worst  calamities  which  could  have  be- 
fallen modern  civilization  and  the  progress  of  the  race. 
Whatever  she  did  or  left  undone,  Elizabeth  felt  that  she 
must  throw  herself  with  all  her  skill  and  resources  across 
the  path  of  these  aggressive  Spanish  monarchs.  She  must 
outwit  them  in  their  cunning  wiles  and  outfight  them  in 
any  battles  they  might  see  fit  to  wage.  How  successful 
she  was  all  the  world  knows,  and  will  keep  in  memory  to  the 
end  of  time. 

These  facts  explain  —  in  some  measure  they  palliate  — 
the  cruel  deeds  done  by  the  queen  in  her  dealing  with  Dis- 
senters. They  serve  to  mitigate  the  severity  of  our  condem- 
nation. Her  procedure  was  not  wise.  Injustice  is  never 
wise.  There  were  other  ways  besides  torturing  and  hanging 
Protestant  subjects  by  which  she  could  have  held  the  nation 
loyal  to  her  authority.  The  policy  she  pursued  meant 
sooner  or  later  an  Oliver  Cromwell  and  a  Charles  without  a 
head.  After  all,  Elizabeth,  like  the  Pilgrims  and  the  Puri- 
tans, is  to  be  judged  by  the  standards  of  her  own  age,  and 
not  by  those  of  our  age,  and  by  the  conditions  under  which 
she  reigned. 


But  persecution  could  not  arrest  the  conclusions  of  rea- 
son, or  stifle  the  convictions  of  conscience.  Men  who  think 
for  themselves  will  by  and  by  act  for  them- 
How  injus-  selves.  Over  against  this  background  of  big- 
tice  and  0trv  an(j  oppression  and  hate,  and  all  that  the 
oppression  Henrys  and  Marys  and  Elizabeths  and  Jameses 
helped  could  do  to  stay  the  march  of  events  and  keep 

the  moral  sense  in  subordination  to  arbitrary 
power,  we  have  the  magnificent  story  of  Separatism.  Under 
this  severe  discipline  of  fire  and  blood  heroic  souls  emerged, 


THE    PILGRIMS  29 

and  feeble  and  harassed  groups  of  disciples  grew  into 
strong  bodies  of  Independents  with  force  enough  in  them 
to  make  their  influence  for  learning  and  righteousness,  both 
in  home  and  foreign  lands,  a  distinguishable  and  potent 
factor  in  the  best  civilization  of  this  modern  era.  The  Pil- 
grim was  the  joint  product  of  the  cruel  injustice  and  the 
high  aspirations  of  his  time.  Faith  in  God  and  a  well- 
developed  and  vigorous  moral  sense  on  the  one  side,  and  an 
over  liberal  supply  of  persecution  by  Tudors  and  Stuarts 
on  the  other,  called  forth  the  Pilgrim  and  made  him  the 
superb  type  of  man  he  came  to  be.  He  is  one  of  the  best 
of  the  many  examples  in  history  of 

' '  The  mystic  harmony  of  right  and  wrong, 
Both  working  out  His  wisdom  and  our  good." 

In  church  and  state  alike  there  was  call  for  him,  and  bad 
men  turned  in  and  helped  produce  him.  Counted  insignifi- 
cant by  many,  disdained  and  despised  by  those  high  in 
authority,  he  was  yet  the  hinge  on  which  mighty  events  were 
to  turn.  Society  had  reached  a  point  in  its  progress  where 
his  services  were  to  have  a  unique  and  enduring  value ;  and 
tyrants  became  his  unwitting  instructors,  that  he  might 
the  better  learn  how  to  build  institutions  which  should  be 
to  the  everlasting  glory  of  God  and  the  permanent  welfare 
of  humanity. 


Ill 

THE  PIONEERS  OP   THE  PILGRIMS 


Men  that  have  hazarded  their  lives  for  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  —  The  Book  of  Acts. 

There  may  have  been  others,  but  looking  back  through  the  dim  mists  of 
time,  the  earliest  pioneers  of  independent  thought  we  come  upon  on  English 
soil  are  thirty  weavers  in  the  diocese  of  Worcester,  who  were  summoned 
before  the  council  of  Oxford  as  far  back  as  a.  d.  1165.  —  John  Bbown. 


Those  who  gave  earliest  notice,  as  the  lark 

Springs  from  the  ground  the  morn  to  gratulate; 

Who  rather  rose  the  day  to  antedate, 

By  striking  out  a  solitary  spark, 

When  all  the  world  with  midnight  gloom  was  dark. 

William  Wordsworth. 


It  was  the  glory  of  the  Separatists  that  they  had  a  vision  of  another 
state  of  things,  and  struck  out  a  new  path,  pronounced  of  course  by  all  the 
lovers  of  the  old,  to  be  revolutionary  and  dangerous.  Dangerous  it  was  not, 
except  in  the  sense  in  which  liberty  of  every  kind  has  its  perils,  but  revolution- 
ary it  undoubtedly  was.  The  Separatists  broke  loose  by  one  strong  effort 
of  faith  from  all  the  restraints  of  antiquity  and  tradition.  They  were  as 
revolutionary  as  the  men  who  framed  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
Where  would  the  world  be  if  it  had  not  had  from  time  to  time  men  who  have 
dared  to  work  out  revolutions?  —  J.  Guinness  Rogers. 

Not  for  their  hearts  and  homes  alone, 
But  for  the  world  their  work  was  done; 

On  all  the  winds  their  thought  has  flown 
Through  all  the  circuits  of  the  sun. 

John  G.  Whittier. 

Come  out,  then,  from  the  old  thoughts  and  old  ways, 
Before  you  harden  to  a  crystal  cold, 
Which  the  new  life  can  shatter,  but  not  mould ; 

Freedom  for  you  still  waits,  still,  looking  backward,  stays, 

But  widens  still  the  irretrievable  space. 

James  Russell  Lowell. 


Ill 

THE    PIONEERS    OF    THE    PILGRIMS 

IN  coasting  along  the  shores  of  the  section  of  history  now 
engaging  our  attention  three  prominent  headlands 
appear  in  three  men  who  had  marked  share  in  quicken- 
ing Puritan  conceptions  and  aspirations,  and  in  fixing  the 
grounds  on  which  the  great  and  inevitable  struggle  for 
further  reformation  in  religion  should  be  fought  out.  These 
three  outstanding  men  also  illustrate  the  courage  and  cost 
required  to  carry  the  conflict  through  to  a  successful  issue. 
Or,  to  change  the  figure  to  one  more  common  to  our  thought, 
it  may  be  said  that  this  movement,  which  was  first  Puritan 
and  later  Pilgrim,  had  three  distinct  and  distinguished 
pioneers. 


Of  these  three  the  leading  name  is  John  Hooper.  By 
some  of  our  writers  Hooper  is  considered  to  have  been  the 
first  Puritan.  Whether  he  was  or  not  is  im- 
Hooperand  material.  The  things  he  stood  for,  and  for 
his  martyr-  wnich  he  died,  make  him  a  conspicuous  figure 
dom  jjj  tne  momentous  controversy  for  the  emanci- 

pation of  religion  from  superstition  and  selfish- 
ness, and  impart  to  his  services  a  peculiar  value.  Whatever 
place  is  assigned  to  him  in  the  glorious  succession  of  open- 
visioned  men  and  martyrs  to  the  truth  he  will  hardly  be  too 
much  honored. 

Hooper  was  born  in  Somersetshire  about  1495.  It  was 
a  stirring  time  in  which  to  begin  life.  Columbus  had  made 
the  discovery  of  America  only  three  years  before.  Henry 
VIII  was  his  senior  by  barely  four  years.  Martin  Luther, 
across  in  Germany,  was  a  lad  of  fourteen.     Leo  X,  down 

3 


34  THE    PILGRIMS 

in  Italy,  though  already  a  cardinal,  was  a  youth  of  little 
more  than  twenty.  Resolute  spirits  these,  and  the  sure 
prophecies  of  no  little  excitement  and  overturning  in  the 
near  future.  The  air,  both  in  England  and  on  the  conti- 
nent, was  charged  with  electricity.  It  would  not  be  long 
before  lightnings  would  flash  along  the  sky  and  the  earth 
shake  with  the  rumble  of  approaching  thunder. 

Hooper  studied  at  Oxford ;  but  he  was  forced  to  escape 
to  foreign  lands  on  account  of  his  sympathies  with  new 
ideas  and  movements.  The  battle  had  begun.  The  clatter 
of  onset  near  at  hand  and  the  dull  roar  of  the  distant  can- 
nonade were  reaching  his  ear.  To  him,  however,  these 
ominous  reverberations  were  not  so  much  the  sound  of  war 
as  the  rustling  of  the  wings  of  the  angels  who  were  herald- 
ing a  fresh  dawn  to  the  world.  Hence  he  could  not 
withhold  expressions  of  approval  and  demonstrations  of 
gladness.  Such  expressions  and  demonstrations  were  in- 
tolerable to  the  reigning  powers.  His  safety  lay  in  flight. 
In  the  expectation  that  with  the  passing  of  Henry  there 
would  be  an  end  of  persecution,  he  returned  to  England. 
In  1550,  under  Edward  VI,  he  was  made  bishop  of  Glouces- 
ter. Subsequently  he  was  appointed  bishop  of  Worcester 
as  well.  Five  years  later,  in  the  crusade  of  murder  for 
opinion's  sake,  set  on  foot  by  Mary  Tudor,  he  was 
burned  at  the  stake.  Thus  he  was  gathered  into  what  we 
now  know  as  the  glorious  fellowship  of  Rogers,  Taylor, 
and  Ferrar,  of  Ridley,  Latimer,  and  Cranmer,  and  made 
one  of  the  cherished  immortals  of  history. 

Hooper  was  not  a  Separatist.  In  the  times  of  storm  and 
stress  which  had  come  upon  the  people  of  God,  he  en- 
couraged the  nourishing  of  spiritual  life  in  the  hearts  of 
believers  by  what  we  should  call  prayer  and  conference 
meetings,  though  these  had  to  be  held  in  secret;  but  he 
never  advised  action  which  looked  toward  a  sharp  and  final 
breaking  away  from  the  church  in  which  he  and  others  of 
like  mind  had  their  membership.  But  he  was  positive  and 
firm  in  his  Puritanism,  as  is  made  evident  by  the  surrender 
of  his  life  in  devotion  to  Puritan  principles.  It  was  only  a 
matter  of  vestments  at  which  he  hesitated;  but  these  vest- 
ments in  what  they  represented,  like  the  flag  of  a  country, 


THE    PILGRIMS  35 

involved  the  whole  question  in  controversy.  In  the  protest 
he  uttered,  and  finally  sealed  with  his  blood,  he  showed  clearly 
that  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authorities  had  forced  an 
"  irrepressible  conflict  "  upon  the  people,  and  that  there 
was  no  alternative  but  to  fight  it  out  to  the  bitter  end.  His 
death  interpreted  the  situation,  and  from  the  moment  of 
his  death  good  and  brave  men  knew  there  must  be  no 
flinching. 

II 

Thomas  Cartwright  is  the  second  of  the  three  men  who 
were  turning-points  in  the  mighty  struggle.    He  was  forty 

years  younger  than  Hooper,  but  he  was  old 
Cartwright  enough  when  Hooper  ascended  through  flame 
and  his  jn^-0  glory  to  have  caught  the  full  significance 

services  0f  fas  death,  and  to  have  felt  the  thrill  of  it  in 

every  pulse  of  his  being. 
Cartwright  was  born  at  a  place  not  definitely  located  in 
Hertfordshire  in  1535.  He  was  evidently  a  boy  of  unusual 
promise,  and  at  an  early  age  began  his  studies  at  Cam- 
bridge; but  his  life  was  launched  on  a  tempestuous  sea, 
and  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  voyaging  he  was 
the  victim  of  the  wild  tossings  to  which  the  changing  winds 
and  cross-currents  of  his  times  would  inevitably  expose  him. 
A  bright  scholar,  a  popular  professor,  a  vigorous  thinker, 
a  skilful  debater,  and  an  influential  leader,  he  was  never 
safe  in  his  place,  nor  long  at  ease.  He  was  now  here  and 
now  there ;  at  one  and  another  stage  of  his  career  in  high 
favor  at  the  university  of  his  choice  and  love,  at  subse- 
quent or  intervening  stages  a  refugee  on  the  continent, 
or  sheltered  from  the  assaults  of  his  enemies  under  the  wing 
of  eminent  officials,  but  always  in  the  thick  of  the  fight. 
Had  he  been  a  man  of  small  mind,  or  of  conservative  tem- 
perament, or  of  cool,  calculating  disposition,  he  might  have 
got  on,  as  multitudes  of  others  did,  and  been  counted  re- 
markably successful  and  happy.  But  this  was  not  his  type. 
He  had  a  large  brain.  He  was  progressive  in  his  instincts 
and  aspirations.  While  positive  in  his  opinions,  and  intent 
on  having  his  own  way  for  the  reason  that  having  thought 


36  THE    PILGRIMS 

things  through,  as  he  supposed,  his  own  way  very  naturally 
seemed  to  him  to  be  the  best  way,  he  was  yet  capable  of 
disinterested  action.  If  he  failed  to  maintain  this  charac- 
ter to  the  end,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that,  like  the  rest  of 
us,  he  was  human. 

Cartwright's  merit  is  that  in  a  few  clear  and  simple  words 
he  laid  down  the  platform  on  which  the  reforming  party 
stood.  He  brought  things  to  a  point  and  enabled  all  men 
to  see  what  was  the  real  and  vital  question  at  issue.  He  did 
for  both  sides  in  the  controversy  what  Abraham  Lincoln 
did  for  the  country  at  large  when  he  declared  that  the 
nation  could  not  exist  half  slave  and  half  free.  He  ex- 
posed the  quivering  nerve  of  the  situation,  and  showed 
exactly  along  what  lines  the  contest  must  be  waged.  He 
took  the  struggle  out  of  the  air  and  gave  it  definite  out- 
lining and  location.  Dr.  Dexter  says :  "  To  Thomas  Cart- 
wright  must  clearly  be  assigned  the  chiefest  place  in 
bringing  Puritanism  in  England  to  the  dignity  of  a  devel- 
oped system."  Another  author  in  speaking  of  him  writes : 
"Although  wanting  in  the  judgment  and  self-command 
essential  to  the  leader  of  opinion  and  of  party,  he  gave 
system  and  method  to  the  Puritanism  of  his  day  and  must 
be  regarded  as  its  most  influential  teacher  during  his 
lifetime." 

What  was  the  platform  announced  by  Cartwright?  In 
substance  it  was  that  the  churches  have  rights  in  the  matter 
of  self-regulation  and  in  the  choice  of  ministers  which  no 
outside  authority  may  override;  and  that  ministers  prop- 
erly chosen  and  set  apart  to  their  work  are  to  be  teachers 
and  helpers  and  not  lords  over  God's  heritage.  He  wanted 
to  reduce  ecclesiastical  affairs  to  the  simplicity  of  the  early 
days  of  the  church,  and  to  abolish  archbishops  and  arch- 
deacons with  all  that  their  names  implied.  His  ideas  of 
church  government  were  those  which  he  had  been  taught 
at  Geneva,  and  which  prevailed  in  Holland  and  Scotland. 

Hooper,  as  we  have  seen,  did  not  get  over  from  Puritan- 
ism into  Separatism,  though  he  gave  his  life  in  testimony 
of  his  appreciation  of  a  pure  church.  So  Cartwright  halted 
this  side  of  Independency.  He  recognized  the  rights  of 
the  people,  but  he  was  not  prepared  to  entrust  to  local 


THE    PILGRIMS  37 

churches  the  entire  management  of  their  own  affairs.  The 
autonomy  of  individual  churches  was  something  from  which 
he  shrank.  He  was  unable  to  break  with  the  illusion  that 
there  must  be  some  sort  of  vital  and  organic  relationship 
between  the  church  and  the  nation.  He  would  have  kept 
the  church  a  national  institution  and  under  some  measure 
of  civil  authority,  but  he  would  have  Presbyterianized  it. 
As  has  been  well  said :  "  His  ideal  in  relation  to  church  dis- 
cipline and  organization  was  essentially  Presbyterian ;  and 
this  in  direct  conjunction  with  the  civil  power.  That  he 
would  have  been  willing  to  recognize  any  other  form  of 
church  government  as  lawful,  or  even  entitled  to  toleration, 
we  find  no  evidence." 

Be  it  so,  he  is  not  the  first  reformer,  nor  the  last,  who 
builded  better  than  he  knew.  If  he  advocated  a  system  of 
government  for  the  churches  which  many  of  his  original 
followers  could  not  accept,  he  yet  lifted  up  a  banner  which 
all  eyes  could  see,  and  inscribed  upon  it  a  motto  which  all 
intelligent  people  could  read  and  understand.  He  made 
the  point  of  contention  so  plain  and  at  the  same  time  so 
imperative  that  from  the  hour  of  his  correspondence  with 
Whitgift  men  knew  precisely  where  they  were  and  what  was 
the  end  in  view.  If  his  followers  outran  their  leader,  it  was 
still  their  leader  who  gave  them  inspiration  and  direction, 
and  indicated  their  true  goal.  If  he  was  disposed  to  wait 
for  reform  until  it  should  come  through  the  intervention  of 
government  rather  than  through  individual  initiative  and 
the  formation  of  independent  bodies  of  believers,  it  is  not 
to  be  forgotten  that  in  a  memorable  and  masterly  fashion 
he  gave  intellectual  alignment  to  the  forces  which  were 
to  fight  and  win  the  coming  battle.  When  Puritans  were 
asked  to  state  the  grounds  of  their  contention,  and  what 
would  satisfy  them,  they  had  only  to  point  to  the  platform 
laid  down  for  them  by  the  Lady  Margaret  Professor  of 
Divinity  in  the  University  of  Cambridge.  For  this  invalu- 
able service  Thomas  Cartwright  is  fairly  entitled  to  the 
everlasting  gratitude  of  all  free  churches  throughout  the 
world. 


38  THE    PILGRIMS 


III 

The  third  name  in  our  list  is  Robert  Browne.  He  was  a 
native  of  Tolethorp,  Rutlandshire,  and  the  time  of  his  birth 
is  given  as  near  1550.  He  was  of  good  stock. 
Robert  Facts  gathered  by  Dr.  Dexter  show  that  for 

Browne —  many  generations  back  his  ancestors  were  men 
his  merit  0f  wealth  and  standing.  His  grandfather, 
and  his  Francis  Browne,  "  received,  by  special  charter 

tarnished  from  Henry  VIII,  the  somewhat  extraordinary 
fame  distinction  of  being  allowed  to  remain  covered 

in  presence  of  the  King,  and  of  all  lords  spir- 
itual and  temporal  in  the  realm."  His  mother,  Dorothy 
Boteler,  was  of  gentle  blood.  His  brother  Philip  "  was 
surveyor  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  manors  in  Lincolnshire." 
Lord  Burleigh,  who  befriended  him  so  effectively  in  his 
hour  of  sore  straits,  was  his  kinsman.  Like  Cartwright, 
he  was  a  youth  of  excellent  parts,  and  there  was  every 
reason  to  expect  that,  coming  to  maturity,  he  would  be  a 
man  of  power  and  influence.  At  the  age  of  twenty,  if  in- 
ferences and  conjectures  are  correct,  he  entered  Cambridge, 
and  in  all  probability  he  was  a  regular  graduate  from 
Corpus  Christi  College. 

In  due  time  he  became  a  minister ;  but  with  the  attempt 
to  induct  him  into  his  office  and  keep  him  within  proper 
conservative  bounds  the  trouble  began.  With  an  eye  to  see 
clearly  and  a  mind  naturally  vigorous  and  trained  to  ac- 
curate thinking,  fully  alive  to  the  errors  and  corruption 
everywhere  in  evidence,  resolute,  impulsive,  he  had  the 
courage  of  his  convictions.  Such  men  are  very  sure  to 
be  heard  from  when  there  are  burning  questions  to  be  settled 
and  grievous  wrongs  to  be  righted.  The  agitators  and 
reformers,  especially  Cartwright,  had  not  been  without  a 
large  measure  of  success  in  their  work  at  the  university, 
and  when  Browne  appeared  upon  the  scene  Cambridge  was 
a  hotbed  of  progressive  ideas.  There  was  enough  con- 
servatism to  create  friction;  but  things  evil,  though  en- 
trenched in  tradition  and  law  alike,  were  fiercely  challenged. 
Browne  spoke  out,  and  neither  harsh  dealings  nor  kindly 


THE    PILGRIMS  39 

treatment,  neither  the  threats  of  those  whose  positions  he 
assailed  nor  the  entreaties  of  his  friends,  could  silence  him. 
Reform  was  a  fire  in  his  bones,  and  he  had  to  be  true  to  the 
duty  he  felt. 

But  the  story  of  Browne  is  a  mixed  and  sad  one.  There 
are  few  Congregationalists  who  do  not  wish  it  other  than 
it  is. 

For  our  present  purposes,  however,  it  is  unnecessary  to 
give  anything  more  than  a  brief  outline  of  his  strange  and 
pathetic  record.  As  we  have  seen,  he  was  a  student  at 
Cambridge  for  several  years  subsequent  to  1570.  Having 
left  college,  he  was  a  teacher  for  three  years  in  Southwark, 
a  district  of  London.  After  this,  for  a  short  and  indefinite 
period,  he  was  a  dweller  once  more  under  the  roof  of  his 
father's  home.  A  little  later  he  was  back  again  at  the 
university  for  the  further  prosecution  of  his  studies  in 
theology.  For  about  six  months,  following  this  second 
return  to  Cambridge,  he  was  a  vigorous,  laborious,  and 
popular  preacher  in  one  of  the  Cambridge  pulpits. 

Some  time  in  1580,  or  when  he  was  thirty  years  of  age 
and  in  the  prime  of  his  early  manhood,  he  went  to  Norwich. 
A  report  had  reached  his  ear  that  in  this  old  Roman  town 
there  was  a  group  of  people  who  were  intent  on  improve- 
ment in  existing  religious  conditions,  and  he  wanted  to 
see  them,  compare  notes  with  them,  and  make  observation 
of  their  manner  of  life.  Being  on  the  ground,  and  accredit- 
ing himself  to  them  by  his  ability  and  determination,  he 
became  the  accepted  leader  of  these  people.  He  organized 
them  into  a  church  on  the  simple  Congregational  basis. 
He  labored  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds  also,  and  possibly  at  other 
places  in  the  region. 

A  year  or  so  afterward  he  led  this  Norwich  flock  over  the 
sea  to  Middleberg  in  Zealand.  There  he  spent  his  time  in 
ministering  to  them  and  in  writing  on  matters  of  vital  con- 
cern. At  the  end  of  a  couple  of  years  devoted  to  this  kind 
of  effort,  and  when  the  elements  of  the  little  church  were 
found  to  be  incongruous,  and  irreconcilable  differences  of 
a  serious  sort  had  made  their  appearance,  he  left  Zealand 
for  Scotland.  In  this. wide  parish  to  which  John  Knox  had 
ministered  so  long  and  so  effectually,  and  from  which  he 


40  THE    PILGRIMS 

had  but  recently  ascended  into  the  open  presence  of  his 
Lord,  he  became  a  restless  declaimer  of  disturbing  opinions 
and  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  Presbyterianism.  Not  far  from 
1586,  he  made  his  way  to  England  again,  and  having 
passed  through  various  experiences  at  the  hands  of  both 
friends  and  foes,  he  turned  his  back  on  himself  and  his  fol- 
lowers, recanted  and  disowned  his  brave  opinions,  and, 
humiliated  and  trembling  under  the  excommunication  of 
the  bishop  of  Peterborough,  returned  in  an  almost  abject 
submissiveness  to  the  fold  of  the  church  in  which  he  had 
found  so  much  error  and  corruption,  and  which  he  had 
denounced  so  unsparingly. 

After  this  most  surprising  change  of  attitude,  he  lived 
on,  a  teacher  for  a  brief  season,  and  then  an  inconspicuous 
rector  of  an  insignificant  parish,  but  an  agitator  effectually 
silenced,  for  forty  weary  years.  The  end  came  at  North- 
ampton, about  ten  years  after  the  Pilgrims  had  landed  at 
Plymouth  Rock.  His  grave  no  man  knoweth  unto  this 
day. 

These  are  the  characters  in  which  he  figured ;  these  are 
the  stages  in  the  course  which  he  ran ;  these  are  the  outlines 
of  his  life,  from  the  hour  when  he  emerged  to  public  view 
and  took  up  what  he  conceived  to  be  his  work  in  the  world 
till  death  came  to  his  release  and  the  relief  of  those  to  whom 
he  had  long  been  a  humiliating  and  anxious  burden. 

It  was  a  well-nigh  incredible  life  for  any  man  to  have 
lived.  It  opened  with  splendid  displays  of  clear  seeing  and 
courage.  It  was  marked  by  eminent  service  to  the  cause 
of  pure  and  undefiled  religion.  It  bid  fair  at  one  time  to 
be  a  life  which,  for  its  earnestness,  its  consistency,  its  superb 
heroism  and  high  devotion,  would  win  and  hold  the  admira- 
tion of  the  centuries.     Its  ending  was  weak  and  pitiable. 

It  is  not  uncommon  for  a  radical  in  the  course  of  events 
to  become  a  conservative.  Experience  in  trying  to  bring 
about  reforms  in  church  and  state  not  unfrequently  tones 
down,  if  it  does  not  wholly  destroy,  enthusiasm  for  reform. 
It  takes  a  man  of  indomitable  pluck  and  entire  consecration 
to  stand  up  and  go  straight  on  in  face  of  the  discourage- 
ments sure  to  be  encountered  in  efforts  to  advance  society. 

But  here  was  a  reversal  of  view  and  aim  so  end  for  end 


THE    PILGRIMS  41 

and  a  collapse  so  utter  that  it  seems  not  only  mysterious 
but  ignominious.  Like  old  Gonzalo's  commonwealth  in 
Shakespeare's  "  Tempest,"  the  latter  end  of  his  life  alto- 
gether forgot  the  beginning.  Browne  was  a  radical  of  the 
most  radical  type,  but  his  final  surrender  to  the  very 
authorities  he  had  repudiated  and  denounced  was  so  sur- 
prising that  it  suggests  a  cowed  braggart  or  an  athlete 
out  of  whom  all  spirit  has  been  taken. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  a  personality  like  this  has  been 
found  perplexing  to  students  of  history.  The  case  presents 
a  nut  for  the  psychologists  to  crack,  or  rather,  it  may  be,  for 
the  alienists.  It  is  no  wonder  that  self-respecting  believers 
used  to  be  a  bit  chagrined  when  called  by  his  name,  and 
vigorously  insisted  on  some  less  compromising  designation. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  members  of  the  Congregational  fellow- 
ship, even  in  our  day,  find  it  hard  to  conquer  their  preju- 
dices and  entertain  anything  like  reasonable  respect  for  a 
leader  who  brought  his  career  to  a  close  with  such  an  ignoble 
anticlimax. 

Dr.  Mackennal,  in  a  paragraph  in  which  he  deals  with 
him,  breaks  out  somewhat  impatiently  and  says :  "  Let  me 
frankly  confess  —  I  do  not  like  Robert  Browne ;  I  have  not 
the  confidence  in  him  expressed  by  Dr.  Dexter  and  Dr.  Dale. 
He  was  a  man  offensive  to  his  opponents  and  objectionable 
to  his  friends ;  he  betrayed  the  cause  to  which  he  attached 
himself;  and  I  do  not  wonder  at  the  heat  with  which 
English  dissenters  have  always  repudiated  the  nickname 
6  Brownist.'  " 

Dr.  Brown  of  Bedford,  in  "  The  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  New 
England,"  though  not  disposed  to  admit  all  the  claims  which 
have  been  advanced  in  his  behalf,  has  this  to  say  of  him: 
"  The  leader  of  the  Congregation alists  in  East  Anglia  was 
Robert  Browne,  a  man  of  ability  and  force  of  character, 
and,  so  far  as  social  position  was  concerned,  of  aristocratic 
connections.  By  a  strange  irony  of  fate  he  is  by  one  side 
persistently  described  as  the  founder  of  Congregationalism, 
and  as  persistently  repudiated  by  the  other.  From  having 
advocated  Congregational  principles  at  one  part  of  his 
career,  and  withdrawn  from  them  at  another,  he  has  re- 
ceived scant  justice  from  both  sides.    Ardent  and  impulsive, 


42  THE    PILGRIMS 

but  too  unstable  to  stand  the  stress  of  the  storm  which  gath- 
ered about  him  year  after  year  —  he  was,  he  says,  in  the 
course  of  his  life  in  no  fewer  than  thirty  prisons,  in  some 
of  which  he  could  not  see  his  hand  at  midday  —  he  scarcely 
seems  to  have  deserved  all  the  hard  things  that  have  been 
said  of  him.  No  doubt  he  had  more  capacity  for  expound- 
ing the  principles  of  Congregationalism  than  for  working 
them  out  in  his  actual  life ;  but  no  one  can  dispassionately 
read  the  five  books  he  published  between  1582  and  1584 
without  feeling  that  at  that  time  at  least  he  was  an  earnest- 
minded  man,  of  strong  and  clear  convictions  in  favor  of 
popular  government  in  the  Church." 

Dr.  Bacon  is  perhaps  the  least  sparing  of  all  in  his 
criticism  of  Browne.  He  says  that,  though  he  "  was  re- 
stored to  good  standing,  not  only  in  the  church,  but  in  the 
priesthood,"  and  "  in  a  short  time  after  his  submission 
received  a  benefice,"  "  this  does  not  imply  that  he  recanted 
his  opinions,  or  made  any  profession  of  repentance  for 
what  he  had  done  —  it  was  enough  that  he  submitted.  He 
had  not  even  the  desperate  self-respect  which  prompted 
Judas  to  hang  himself ;  but,  like  Benedict  Arnold,  he  took 
care  not  to  lose  the  poor  reward  of  his  baseness.  He  was 
the  rector  of  a  parish,  and  received  his  tithes,  but  never 
preached.  By  his  idle  and  dissolute  life  he  disgraced  his 
ministry ;  but,  inasmuch  as  he  could  not  be  charged  with 
non-conformity,  he  retained  his  living.  The  quarrelsome 
temper  which  had  broken  up  his  little  church  at  Middleberg 
vented  itself  upon  his  wife  in  acts  of  cruelty,  and  they  could 
not  live  together.  In  a  quarrel  with  the  constable  of  the 
parish,  he  took  the  responsibility  of  beating  that  officer. 
Arraigned  before  a  justice  for  the  unclerical  offense,  he 
used  such  violence  of  speech  that  he  was  sent  to  prison  for 
contempt,  and  there  he  died,  at  the  age  of  eighty,  a  mis- 
erable and  despised  old  man,  but  a  beneficed  minister  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  in  regular  standing." 

After  all,  it  seems  to  me  that  Dr.  Dexter  has  given  us 
much  the  best  explanation  of  Browne's  eccentricities.  Dr. 
Bacon,  in  the  estimate  which  he  made  of  Browne  in  the 
latter  part  of  his  life,  followed  Fuller.  Dr.  Dexter  took 
pains  to  sift  the  statements  of  Fuller,  and  see  what  grounds 


THE    PILGRIMS  43 

he  had  for  his  opinion.  Trying  his  assertions  by  the  test 
of  a  careful  examination  into  the  facts  on  which  they  were 
based,  he  found  him  not  invariably  trustworthy.  Very 
properly,  therefore,  he  refused  to  follow  Fuller  in  his  judg- 
ment of  Browne  unless  he  found  something  beside  Fuller's 
mere  assertion  to  justify  the  judgment.  According  to  his 
summing  up  of  the  case  Browne  was  not  an  "  ambitious 
bigot ;  "  he  was  not  a  "  contemptible  sneak ;  "  he  was  not 
"  dishonest "  and  corrupt ;  he  was  not  "  a  renegade  and  a 
reprobate ;  "  but  "  he  was  an  honest  man,  whose  sensitive 
mind,  under  great  stress  of  trial,  made  shipwreck  on  his 
return  to  his  native  country ;  who  never  became  really  him- 
self again ;  and  who,  for  the  longer  portion  of  the  last  five 
and  forty  years  of  his  life,  was  in  a  shattered  mental  con- 
dition, which  in  our  time  would  be  thought  better  placed 
in  a  lunatic  hospital  than  in  the  rectory  even  of  an  Estab- 
lished Church  of  eighteen  families."  The  facts  brought 
forward  would  appear  to  make  this  clear  to  any  unpreju- 
diced student.  Weak  in  body,  intense  of  brain,  and  of  a 
high-strung  nervous  organization,  the  man  was  overworked 
and  overworried  into  a  species  of  insanity  from  which  he 
never  recovered. 

What,  now,  did  Robert  Browne  do  to  entitle  him  to  the 
unique  place  which  he  holds  in  the  history  and  development 
of  Congregationalism?     He  did  three  things: 

(a)  He  stated  the  principles  which  underlie  Congrega- 
tionalism with  a  clearness  and  force  which  at  once  invested 
them  with  a  large  measure  of  the  authority  of  demonstrated 
truths.  Dr.  Mackennal,  in  spite  of  his  dislike  of  the  man, 
freely  concedes  to  him  this  merit :  "  He  was  a  clear  and 
resolute  thinker ;  he  gave  himself  to  study  the  problems  of 
his  time  in  the  simple  light  of  the  New  Testament,  and  he 
produced  an  admirable  and  complete  doctrine  of  the  Church, 
which  at  once  determined  the  whole  future  of  Congrega- 
tionalism." Dr.  Dexter  makes  the  statement :  "  It  is 
very  clear  that  Browne  .  .  .  following  the  track  of 
thought  which  he  had  long  been  elaborating  .  .  .  thor- 
oughly discovered  and  restated  the  original  Congrega- 
tional way  in  all  its  simplicity  and  symmetry." 

(  b)  He  put  his  theory  in  practise  by  organizing  a  church 


44  THE    PILGRIMS 

on  the  basis  of  Congregationalism.  This  he  did  at  Nor- 
wich. It  is  a  question  in  debate  whether  this  church  at 
Norwich  was  really  the  first  Congregational  church  set 
up  in  England.  Dr.  Dexter,  in  a  sentence  immediately 
following  the  statement  just  quoted  from  him,  goes  on  to 
say :  "  And  here  ...  by  his  promptings  and  under  his 
guidance,  was  formed  the  first  church  in  modern  days  of 
which  I  have  any  knowledge,  which  was  intelligently,  and 
as  one  might  say  philosophically,  Congregational  in  its 
platform  and  processes." 

In  a  certain  technical  sense  this  may  be  true,  —  it  no 
doubt  is  true;  but  all  the  later  writers,  such  as  Griffis, 
Brown,  and  Mackennal,  are  a  unit  in  the  claim  that  there 
were  churches  in  England  which  were  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  Congregational  years  before  Browne  began  his 
career.  The  members  of  them  were  Protestants.  They 
were  dissenters.  They  were  affiliated  in  worship.  Like  the 
smitten  people  of  God  in  the  olden  times,  they  came  together 
in  dens  and  caves ;  or,  like  the  disciples  before  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  they  met  for  prayer  and  praise  in  upper  cham- 
bers; and  while  not  Congregational  in  all  that  the  term 
has  come  to  mean  in  the  United  States,  they  were  yet  in- 
dependents, and  were  bound  together  in  those  bonds  of 
liberty  and  fellowship  which  are  essential  elements  of 
Congregationalism. 

One  of  these  early  congregations,  numbering  not  less 
than  two  hundred,  gathered  in  London,  and  called  "  Gos- 
pellers," dates  back  to  1553.  Four  years  later  this  hated 
and  hunted  body  of  simple  believers  in  Jesus  Christ  came 
to  grief.  Its  meeting-place  was  revealed  to  the  authorities 
by  "  a  false,  hypocritical,  and  dissembling  brother,"  and 
its  minister  and  deacon  were  burned  at  the  stake.  This 
minister  was  a  native  of  Scotland,  named  John  Rough,  who 
had  heard  of  a  "  holy  congregation  of  God's  children  " 
somewhere  in  the  great  city,  and  had  come  to  find  and  join 
them.  He  succeeded,  but  in  a  little  more  than  a  month 
after  his  arrival  the  assembly  was  discovered  and  broken 
up,  and  he  was  compelled  to  suffer  the  pangs  of  martyrdom. 

A  year  before  the  death  of  Rough  a  minister  by  the  name 
of  Rose  was  sent  to  the  Tower.     With  a  few  of  his  fellow 


THE    PILGRIMS  45 

believers  he  was  detected  at  a  communion  service  in  a  pri- 
vate house  in  Bow  Churchyard,  and  for  this  offense  was 
thrust  into  prison.  His  congregation,  however,  was  but 
a  small  one,  and  was  gathered,  most  likely,  somewhat  later 
than  the  one  to  which  Rough  belonged. 

Later  than  these  organizations,  but  more  than  ten  years 
before  Browne  had  formed  his  church  at  Norwich,  there  was 
a  very  notable  congregation  of  this  sort  in  London.  The 
year  quite  generally  assigned  to  it  is  1567.  Richard  Fitz 
was  its  minister.  This  was  a  church  proper,  with  a  pastor 
to  lead  the  flock,  and  officers  to  administer  its  affairs, 
though  it  had  no  settled  place  for  holding  its  meetings. 
On  the  occasion  when  the  officers  of  the  law  broke  in  upon 
them,  and  arrested  those  whom  they  supposed  to  be  the 
leaders  of  the  body  to  the  number  of  a  dozen  or  more,  these 
people,  who  had  by  some  process  found  their  way  back 
into  the  simplicity  of  Christ,  were  assembled  in  Plumber's 
Hall.  In  a  paper  signed  by  Fitz,  in  which  what  are  claimed 
to  be  the  true  marks  of  a  church  of  Christ  are  set  forth, 
these  three  characteristics  and  aims  are  named :  "  First 
and  foremost,  the  glorious  word  and  Evangel  preached,  not 
in  bondage  and  subjection,  but  freely  and  purely.  Sec- 
ondly, to  have  the  Sacraments  ministered  purely,  only  and 
altogether  according  to  the  institution  and  good  word  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  without  any  tradition  or  invention  of 
man.  And  last  of  all  to  have  not  the  filthy  canon  law, 
but  discipline  only,  and  altogether  agreeable  to  the  same 
heavenly  and  almighty  word  of  our  good  Lord,  Jesus 
Christ." 

Dr.  Mackennal  in  the  little  book  to  which  reference  has 
already  been  made,  and  from  which  in  the  main  the  above 
facts  have  been  gathered,  says :  "  There  are  certain  points 
in  which  this  London  community  had  not  attained  to  the 
complete  Congregational  system  afterward  elaborated  by 
Browne  and  Barrowe ;  but  there  is  considerable  advance  be- 
yond the  position  of  the  secret  assemblies  of  Mary's  time. 
The  church  is  in  protest  against  the  incomplete  Reforma- 
tion in  a  professedly  Protestant  nation ;  —  but  most  im- 
portant of  all  is  what  is  said  about  discipline.  This  is 
regarded  as  the  charge  of  the  whole  church;    any  church 


46  THE    PILGRIMS 

where  this  is  so  is  entitled  to  be  called  Congregational." 
The  same  author  affirms  that  "  a  church  is  still  in  existence 
whose  connection  with  this  persecuted  company  can  be 
traced  —  the  church  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  in  South- 
ward" He  suspects  there  may  be  other  existing  congre- 
gations which  had  their  origin  in  the  same  movement. 
Unquestionably  there  were  a  good  many  of  these  dissenting 
believers  abroad.  Dr.  Brown  finds  "  indisputable  evidence  " 
that  a  Congregational  church  was  in  existence  in  London 
as  early  as  1571.  He  is  inclined  to  think  that  this  London 
church  may  have  been  the  school  in  which  Browne  learned 
so  well  his  Congregational  principles.  Be  this  as  it  may, 
and  be  many  other  things  which  might  be  said  on  this 
matter  as  they  may,  Robert  Browne,  by  his  presence  and 
influence  and  leadership,  did  organize  this  church  at  Nor- 
wich, and  he  organized  it  on  the  basis  of  what  are  distinctly 
Congregational  ideas,  and  he  gave  it  such  shaping  and  in- 
formed it  with  such  a  spirit  and  purpose  that  it  has  stood 
out  from  the  day  on  which  it  was  organized  until  this  pres- 
ent hour  as  a  clearly  defined  and,  so  far  as  its  form  and 
method  of  administering  its  affairs  are  concerned,  typical 
Congregational  church.  Whoever  may  have  preceded  him, 
or  wherever  he  may  have  got  his  notion,  this  man  did  ac- 
tually set  up  and  minister  to  a  church  that  was  self- 
consciously Congregational. 

(c)  He  advocated  the  scheme  of  Separatism,  and  pushed 
it  to  a  successful  issue.  This  was  his  supreme  service ;  and 
it  would  have  been  a  supremely  excellent  service  for  any- 
body to  render.  In  the  perplexity  and  confusion  of  the 
situation  he  saw  clearly  what  ought  to  be  done.  When 
others  were  taking  counsel  of  their  fears,  and  were  uncer- 
tain and  hesitant,  he  boldly  moved  forward  and  beckoned 
others  to  follow.  The  brave  note  which  he  sounded  back 
from  Middleberg,  so  soon  after  reaching  there  with  the 
portion  of  the  Norwich  flock  which  had  accompanied  him  to 
the  safe  shelter  of  a  foreign  land,  and  which  became  the 
rallying  cry  and  word  of  command  to  the  more  radical  of 
the  Nonconformists,  put  a  new  face  on  affairs  and  gave 
him  the  right  of  leadership.  He  took  the  ground  that  he 
and  those  of  like  precious  faith  had  waited  and  debated 


THE    PILGRIMS  47 

long  enough,  had  resorted  to  a  sufficient  number  of  ex- 
pedients, and  that  the  hour  had  struck  for  them  to  act 
on  their  own  convictions  and  meet  the  consequences.  He 
flung  out  the  banner:  Reformation  Without  Tarrying 
For  Any.  Preachers  were  not  to  await  orders  from  the 
magistrates  before  undertaking  the  business  of  reforming 
themselves  and  their  charges,  but  they  were  to  enter  on 
their  tasks  immediately  —  immediately  and  vigorously  — 
or  stand  exposed  to  the  accusation  of  wickedness.  The  fore- 
most men  of  the  Puritan  party  were  helplessly  handicapped 
by  their  vicious  theory  of  the  interdependence  of  church 
and  state.  Cartwright,  invaluable  as  his  aid  to  the  cause 
had  been,  sat  there  enmeshed  and  helpless  in  the  web  of  his 
own  weaving.  With  the  rashness  of  a  genius  for  clear 
seeing  and  bold  action,  Browne  hewed  his  way  straight 
out  through  all  the  entanglements  in  which  the  theorizers 
found  themselves  involved  and  gained  solid  footing  for 
them  all. 

To  sum  it  up  in  few  words,  it  may  be  said  that  it  was 
given  to  Browne,  as  to  no  other,  to  set  Puritanism  forward 
by  defining  the  church  in  terms  so  intelligible  and  simple 
that  one  saw  in  his  statement  a  reproduction  of  the  spirit 
and  method  of  primitive  Christianity,  and  by  announcing 
the  duty  of  the  situation  in  language  so  positive  and  ring- 
ing that  out-and-out  Separatism  was  made  to  seem  to  many 
minds  not  only  justifiable  but  imperative.  At  just  the 
moment  when  Separatism  was  of  all  words  the  word  most 
needed,  Browne  spoke  it.  He  spoke  it  so  clearly  and  loudly 
that  the  echo  of  it  has  never  died  out  of  the  world.  Had 
the  close  of  his  career  been  a  thousandfold  more  disgrace- 
ful than  it  was,  this  would  have  been  a  service  forever  to 
his  credit.  He  was  clear-sighted  and  brave  and  true  at 
an  exigency  when  these  high  qualities  counted  most  for 
the  cause.  He  himself  could  not  undo  the  good  he  had 
done. 

For  circulating  books  in  which  these  courageous  views 
were  expressed  and  advocated  some  men  lost  their  lives,  and 
Browne  has  been  blamed  for  it.  He  remained  safe,  so  it  has 
been  charged,  in  his  secure  retreat  in  a  foreign  land,  and 
permitted  others  more  fearless  back  in  England  to  make 


48  THE    PILGRIMS 

the  last  great  sacrifice  in  penalty  for  the  distribution  of 
his  publications  and  the  dissemination  of  his  ideas. 

But  if  Browne  is  to  be  reproached  for  this,  then  Martin 
Luther  must  bear  the  blame  for  the  blood  shed  in  the 
mighty  conflict  which  resulted  from  the  changes  which  his 
views  set  in  motion.  So,  too,  the  cruel  taking  off  of  the 
patriotic  yeomen  who  fell  at  Lexington  and  Concord  and 
Bunker  Hill  must  be  laid  as  a  crime  at  the  doors  of  Samuel 
Adams  and  John  Hancock.  Even  though  he  did  not  bear 
arms  and  expose  his  own  breast  on  the  field  of  battle,  who 
fails  to  applaud  Benjamin  Franklin  for  his  stout  advocacy 
of  the  rights  of  the  colonies  in  their  revolt  against  England? 
There  would  have  been  no  Civil  War  in  this  land  —  at  any 
rate  no  Civil  War  in  just  the  form  in  which  it  broke  upon 
the  nation  —  with  all  its  ghastly  record  of  suffering  and 
slaughter,  had  there  been  no  agitation  against  the  economic 
blunder  and  awful  wrong  of  slavery.  Some  of  these  agi- 
tators never  shouldered  muskets  nor  faced  foes  on  fields  of 
blood ;  but  will  not  Lloyd  Garrison  and  Wendell  Phillips  and 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  and  John  Greenleaf  Whittier  be  held 
in  lasting  honor  by  all  true  patriots  and  philanthropists 
for  the  bold  and  heroic  part  they  took  in  exposing  the  mon- 
strous iniquity  of  holding  men  and  women  in  bondage,  and 
creating  a  public  opinion  which  at  length  would  insist  on 
striking  every  shackle  from  every  limb  and  giving  to  all 
alike  a  chance  to  breathe  the  air  of  freedom  and  to  work 
out  the  destiny  of  honest  and  intelligent  citizens  of  the 
Republic  ? 

Ideas  concerning  liberty  and  human  rights  have  always 
been  explosive  and  revolutionary.  They  have  been  explos- 
ive and  revolutionary  because  they  needed  to  be;  and  the 
utterance  of  them  has  almost  always  awakened  opposition 
and  endangered  life.  If  the  thinkers  had  only  consented 
to  keep  still  there  would  have  been  far  less  strife  in  church 
and  state,  but  a  vast  deal  more  bondage.  Suppose  Browne 
had  never  written  any  books  —  or,  having  written  books, 
suppose  they  had  never  been  taken  back  into  England  and 
distributed  and  read,  and  gravely  pondered  by  the  men  into 
whose  hands  they  fell  —  what  then  ?  Would  nobody  have 
suffered?    Would  no  souls  have  perished  for  lack  of  knowl- 


THE    PILGRIMS  49 

edge,  and  would  the  Church  have  been  as  well  off,  and  the 
world  as  far  along?  There  is  a  crime  of  silence  as  well  as  of 
speech.  As  much  harm  may  come  from  overprudence 
as  from  uncalculating  courage.  Browne  was  right  in  what 
he  thought  and  in  publishing  his  thoughts;  for  thereby 
came  appreciable  gains  to  the  cause  of  Christ. 


IV 

THE  PILGRIMS  AT  SCROOBY 


So  many  therefore  of  these  professors  as  saw  the  evil  of  these  things,  in 
these  parts,  and  whose  hearts  the  Lord  had  touched  with  heavenly  zeal  for 
His  truth,  they  shook  off  this  yoke  of  antichristian  bondage,  and  as  the  Lord's 
free  people,  joined  themselves  —  by  a  covenant  of  the  Lord  —  into  a  church 
estate,  in  the  fellowship  of  the  gospel,  to  walk  in  all  His  ways,  made  known, 
or  to  be  made  known  unto  them,  according  to  their  best  endeavors,  whatso- 
ever it  should  cost  them.  —  William  Bradford. 

The  principle  is  now  almost  universally  recognized  that,  for  the  national 
well-being  as  well  as  for  religious  prosperity,  there  must  be  self-regulating 
Christian  communities,  interpreting  for  themselves  the  will  of  God,  existing 
within  the  state,  but  not  using  the  civil  power.  —  Alexander  Mackennal. 

Back  of  these  beginnings,  it  is  true,  we  recognize  the  tremendous  forces 
of  the  Renaissance,  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  discoveries  in  the  West, 
and  of  the  intolerance  of  the  Anglican  communion.  But,  all  said  and  done, 
that  a  handful  of  men  living  in  a  small  group  of  obscure  villages  in  England, 
one  of  them  a  postmaster,  should  have  been  chiefly  responsible  for  a  work 
that  was  to  be  pregnant  with  the  destiny  of  unborn  millions  of  human  beings, 
it  is  not  exaggeration  to  describe  as  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world. 

James  Nevins  Hyde. 

Men  and  women  chosen  by  Divine  Providence  to  do  a  mighty  work  for 
human  liberty,  whereof  we,  and  all  American  people,  and  the  innumerable 
millions  more  that  are  to  come  —  are  the  inheritors. 

Edwin  S.  Crandon. 

Men  whom  the  Lord,  and  not  the  King,  made  great; 
And  who,  themselves,  were  both  a  church  and  State. 

John  Pierpont. 


IV 

THE   PILGRIMS    AT    SCROOBY 

THE  church  at  Scrooby  was  gathered  in  1606.  Four 
years  earlier,  or  a  year  before  Elizabeth  died  and 
James  succeeded  her,  a  Separatist  church  had  been 
organized  at  Gainsborough,  on  the  Trent,  about  twelve 
miles  away.  So  much  opposition  began  to  be  encountered 
by  this  Gainsborough  flock,  and  so  many  of  the  members 
were  from  Scrooby  and  the  immediate  vicinity,  that  it  was 
deemed  advisable  by  these  members,  at  the  date  just  men- 
tioned, to  withdraw  and  form  a  second  congregation  in 
their  own  community.  In  disregard  of  whatever  failures 
there  had  been  in  the  past,  and  in  defiance  of  whatever 
dangers  and  hardships  the  future  might  have  in  store  for 
them,  these  brave  souls  took  their  stand  for  religious  liberty 
and  the  rights  of  conscience.  This  stand  it  was  their  sol- 
emn purpose  to  maintain  unto  the  end;  and  grandly  did 
they  succeed.  The  tyranny  which  drove  them  from  their 
homes  and  despoiled  them  of  their  earthly  goods,  failed 
utterly  to  drive  them  from  their  high  resolve.  They  were 
forced  to  change  their  local  habitation  and  to  plant  and 
nourish  their  institutions  first  in  a  foreign  land,  and  then 
on  far  distant  shores  which  were  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
their  own  sovereign;  but  they  carried  their  independent 
and  self-governing  church  with  them  —  never  abandoned 
it ;  never  dissolved  it ;  and,  on  the  basis  of  the  simple  Chris- 
tian democracy  on  which  it  was  organized  three  hundred 
years  ago  in  that  narrow  hamlet  of  Scrooby,  it  still  exists 
in  the  Old  Colony  at  Plymouth.  Under  stress  of  both 
doctrinal  and  spiritual  necessity  this  church  at  Plymouth 
has  been  compelled,  it  is  true,  to  become  once  more  a  Separa- 


54  THE    PILGRIMS 

tist  church,  yet  it  still  exists  in  an  unbroken  continuity 
of  life,  and  loyal  to  the  same  fundamental  conceptions  of 
the  Christian  faith  on  which  it  was  originally  founded. 


This  gathering  of  the  Scrooby  church  was  a  sign  of  the 
times  and  in  line  with  the  drift  of  things.  Rough  and 
Rose  and  Fitz  had  appeared  on  the  stage  and 
A  sign  of  done  their  work  and  gone  hence.  Browne  fol- 
the  times  lowed  them  with  a  ringing  testimony,  and  then 
went  back  on  himself  and  his  ideas ;  but  Separa- 
tism, with  unabated  vigor  and  determination,  kept  moving 
forward,  and  Separatists  continued  to  increase.  In  no 
wise  discouraged  by  the  strange  collapse  of  Browne,  Francis 
Johnson  came  to  the  front.  In  1592  he  was  chosen  pastor 
of  a  Separatist  church  in  London.  This  body  was  notable 
not  only  for  its  numbers,  but  for  the  ability  and  character 
of  the  men  whom  it  attracted  into  its  fellowship.  In  proof 
of  this  it  is  enough  to  cite  the  names  of  Greenwood  and 
Barrowe.    These  men  would  have  dignified  any  cause. 

Dates  and  numbers  are  difficult  to  fix.  But  in  the  later 
eighties  and  early  nineties  Separatists  were  well  in  evidence 
in  London.  They  seemed  to  be  springing  up  in  all  sections 
of  the  city. 

Dr.  Dexter,  in  a  passage  whose  facts  need  the  exact 
setting  which  his  graphic  words  give  them  in  order  to  be 
most  impressive  and  effective,  says :  "  We  trace  these  people 
in  winter  to  as  many  as  seven  or  eight  different  private 
houses  in  various  parts  of  the  city ;  and  in  milder  weather 
to  a  garden  house  near  Bedlam,  and  to  the  woods  of  Dept- 
ford  and  Ratcliff e,  and  the  secluded  gravel-pits  of  Islington. 
We  have  glimpses  of  as  many  as  twelve  or  fourteen  different 
expounders  who  appear  to  have  labored  with  them.  And 
there  is  evidence  that  they  were  accustomed  thus  to  assem- 
ble to  the  number  sometimes  of  sixty  or  one  hundred ;  while, 
when  the  officers  were  very  diligent  in  hunting  them,  so 
many  of  them  might  be  put  in  prison,  that  their  meetings 
would  fall  in  attendance  to  a  score  or  less.    Sometimes  they 


THE    PILGRIMS  55 

would  be  nearly  all  incarcerated  at  once,  and  then  manage 
to  have  a  little  service  together  in  prison  perhaps,  after  the 
midnight  manner  of  Paul  and  Silas  at  Philippi.  We  have 
the  names  of  twenty-four  who  —  some  of  them  after  long 
and  wasting  confinement  —  died  in  various  dungeons, 
the  majority  in  Newgate.  Fifty-nine  who  were  at  one 
time  in  durance  thus  for  conscience'  sake  in  the  Gatehouse, 
the  Fleet,  Newgate,  Bridewell,  the  Clink,  the  White  Lion, 
the  Wood  Street  Counter,  and  the  Poultry  Counter,  united 
in  signing  a  petition  to  the  lord  treasurer;  stating  that 
they  had  endured  great  hardships,  many  of  them  having 
been  shut  up  for  a  year  and  a  half,  some  in  irons,  some  in 
straits  for  proper  food,  and  suffering  from  the  miasmas  of 
their  confinement;  pleading  that  they  might  have  a  fair 
public  hearing,  and  be  made  examples  of,  if  they  were  found 
worthy  of  death  or  bonds ;  but  if  not,  that  they  might  be 
bailed  out,  so  as  to  be  in  a  condition  to  provide  by  honest 
labor  for  the  support  of  their  families  and  themselves ;  or, 
if  not  that,  that  they  might  at  least  be  shut  up  together,  so 
as  to  have  some  comfort  and  help  of  each  other's  society." 

That  the  number  of  people  who  were  of  this  way  of  think- 
ing should  multiply  was  inevitable.  Men  who  were  at  once 
intelligent  and  sincere  could  not  help  feeling  that  the 
church,  as  it  then  existed  in  England,  alike  in  its  attitude 
and  aims,  and  in  its  spirit  and  method,  had  departed 
widely  from  the  simple  faith  and  purpose  of  Him  who  had 
founded  the  church  and  assigned  to  it  the  mission  it  was  to 
fulfil  in  the  world.  The  queen  was  affording  no  relief. 
Eyes  were  turned  in  vain  to  Parliament.  The  press  was  in 
chains.  There  was  no  public  opinion  to  which  to  make 
appeal.  There  was  nothing  at  hand  but  these  secret 
assemblies  —  assemblies,  however,  which  were  no  longer 
merely  secret,  as  in  Mary's  day,  but  distinctly  and  posi- 
tively Separatist. 

Outside  of  London  there  were  also  Separatist  churches. 
How  many  of  them  there  were  it  is  impossible  to  tell.  It  is 
not  surprising  that  such  churches  should  spring  up  on  the 
east  coast  of  England,  but  it  is  a  bit  strange  that  they 
should  be  found  in  the  western  districts.  But  truth  is  con- 
tagious.    Right  ideas  will  find  lodgment  wherever  there 


56  THE    PILGRIMS 

are  intelligent,  conscientious,  and  receptive  minds.  More 
men  than  one  might  suspect  were  hungry  for  the  bread  of 
life.  They  did  not  know  how  to  obtain  it,  but  they  needed 
it  and  wanted  it.  It  will  excite  neither  wonder  nor  suspicion 
that  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  near  the  time  of  the  martyrdom 
of  Greenwood,  Barrowe,  and  Penry,  should  express  the 
fear  from  his  seat  in  Parliament  that  there  might  be  as 
many  as  twenty  thousand  Brownists  in  England. 

But  whether  there  were  few  or  many  of  these  assemblies 
of  believers,  they  found  the  lines  fallen  to  them  in  any  but 
pleasant  places.  Wherever  they  appeared,  whatever  their 
form  of  government  or  method  of  worship,  be  it  under 
Henry,  Mary,  Elizabeth,  or  James,  as  often  as  the  members 
of  these  congregations  were  discovered  they  were  trans- 
ferred to  jails,  and  abused  and  punished  as  if  they  had 
been  criminals  of  the  deepest  dye.  They  were  men  and 
women,  however,  whom  threats  could  not  intimidate  nor 
soft  words  cajole.  By  no  pains  and  penalties  could  they 
be  tortured  into  playing  false  to  their  convictions,  and  by 
no  promises  and  gifts  could  they  be  bribed  into  disloyalty 
to  God.  After  a  quarter  of  a  century  and  more  of  persecu- 
tion, these  fearless  dissenters  were  still  determined  to  wor- 
ship God  and  live  their  lives  after  the  pattern  set  for  them 
on  the  Mount.  Of  this  the  church  at  Scrooby  is  abundant 
proof. 

II 

Scrooby  is  situated  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
north  from  London.     It  is  within  the  borders  of  Notting- 
hamshire;   but  it  is  also  close  to  the  counties 
Scrooby  0f  Lincoln  and  York.     It  is   forty-five  miles 

from  the  east  coast  of  England.  It  is  an  agri- 
cultural town,  limited  in  area,  and  with  a  population  which 
probably  never  exceeded  one  hundred  and  fifty.  To  my 
eye,  as  it  first  lay  open  to  view  in  1888,  and  again  on 
that  memorable  day  in  July,  1891,  when  it  was  visited  by 
so  many  of  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims  and  the  ad- 
herents of  their  faith  and  polity,  it  was  fair  to  look  upon 
and  exceedingly  attractive.     In  a  slight  irregularity  of 


THE    PILGRIMS  57 

surface,  produced  by  elevations  here  and  there  in  alterna- 
tion with  sweeps  of  meadow-land,  in  fertility  of  soil,  in 
wealth  of  grass  and  grain  and  vegetable,  in  sheep  and  cattle 
and  horses  grazing  in  fragrant  clover,  in  stacks  of  straw 
and  hay  near  the  yards  of  the  farmhouses,  there  is  much  to 
remind  one  of  some  of  the  fairest  and  most  fertile  sections 
of  northern  Illinois.  There  is  this  marked  difference,  how- 
ever, between  an  agricultural  landscape  at  the  season  of 
growing  or  ripening  harvests  in  England  and  the  United 
States  —  there  one  never  sees  any  beautiful  fields  of  Indian 
corn.  Without  these  fields  no  farm  scenery  ever  appears 
to  me  to  be  quite  perfect.  Indian  corn  in  the  spindle,  or  in 
the  tassel,  or  with  the  ripe  yellow  ears  gleaming  out 
through  the  faded  husks,  is  fit  subject  for  painter  or  poet. 

But  Scrooby  has  associations  which  illuminate  and  sanc- 
tify it.  It  would  have  been  a  strange  eye  which  could  see 
no  glory  in  those  outlying  fields  and  no  peculiar  radiance 
in  those  overarching  heavens.  Those  streets  were  once 
trodden  by  the  feet  of  men  whose  touch  glorified  Plymouth 
Rock  and  made  it  a  power  forever.  Those  fields  were  once 
cultivated  by  toilers  whose  hands,  before  seizing  and  guid- 
ing the  plow,  had  rested  reverently  in  the  hand  of  the 
Master.  On  the  vibrant  waves  of  the  sweet,  tremulous  air 
devout  songs  and  mighty  cries  once  went  up  into  the  ear  of 
the  Lord  of  Hosts.  In  the  closets  of  those  old  homes  heaven 
and  earth  were  brought  very  near  together,  and  men  and 
women  had  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  that  they  were  the 
children  of  God  and  heirs  of  the  everlasting  inheritance. 
Impulses  to  fidelity  to  Christian  truth  and  to  Christian 
living  which  will  never  lose  their  molding  energy  were 
there  received  and  coined  into  character.  In  that  narrow 
hamlet,  along  those  roads  and  lanes,  across  those  fields 
and  pastures,  men  walked  with  God  and  they  caught  the 
rhythm  of  his  step.  His  secret  was  there  whispered  to 
their  souls.  There  they  saw  Him  who  is  invisible,  and  were 
made  strong  to  endure  whatever  of  hardship  might  fall 
to  their  lot  in  the  coming  years.  Through  quiet  waiting 
on  God  they  came  into  those  experiences  which  are  evermore 
the  best  equipment  for  effective  service  in  moral  spheres. 


58  THE    PILGRIMS 


in 


The  meeting-place  of  this  Separatist  church  at  Scrooby 
was  in  the  old  manor  house  in  which  William  Brewster 
lived.     One  can  but  think  how  sharp  the  con- 
The  old         trast  between  these  gatherings  for  prayer  and 
manor  praise   and  meditation   and  other  gatherings 

house  which  there  had  been  at  one  time  and  another 

within  those  same  apartments. 
As  far  back  as  the  time  of  William  the  Conqueror  the 
estate  in  which  this  house  was  located  belonged  to  the  arch- 
bishops of  York.  These  lordly  ecclesiastics  often  made  the 
house  a  hunting-lodge,  or  a  place  for  a  few  weeks  of  pleas- 
ant recreation.  Besides,  the  little  hamlet  was  on  the  line 
of  the  great  thoroughfare  from  Scotland  by  way  of  York 
to  London,  and  travelers  going  back  and  forth  found  it  a 
convenient  station  at  which  to  stop  for  a  little  on  the 
journey.  The  mansion,  too,  was  large,  having  really  the 
dimensions  of  a  palace;  and  kings  and  princes  with  their 
royal  retinues  could  be  easily  accommodated  under  its  roof 
and  within  its  ample  rooms.  In  1535,  so  we  are  told,  there 
were  in  this  building  not  less  than  thirty-nine  chambers  or 
apartments.  Hence  it  naturally  came  about  that  persons 
whose  names  are  conspicuous  on  the  pages  of  history  often 
tarried  there  for  a  night. 

Within  the  first  decade  of  the  thirteenth  century  King 
John  had  some  association  with  the  place,  though  the  proof 
of  his  actual  presence  there  fades  out  into  a  pale  inference. 
Margaret,  the  sister  of  Henry  VIII,  and  queen  of  Scot- 
land through  her  marriage  with  James  IV,  and,  as  one 
writer  has  noticed,  the  ancestress  of  every  sovereign  who 
has  since  occupied  the  throne  of  the  British  Empire,  once 
rested  there  for  a  night.  It  was  when  she  was  on  her 
journey  to  her  new  happiness  and  her  awaiting  honors,  and 
the  occasion  was  made  one  of  great  display  and  jubilation. 
Henry  VII,  the  father  of  Queen  Margaret,  in  one  of  his 
progresses,  was  a  guest  of  the  house.  It  was  a  place, 
indeed,  which  seems  to  have  had  strong  attractions  for 
royalty  and  the  notables  which  are  wont  to  bask  in  the 


THE    PILGRIMS  59 

smiles  of  kings.  Henry  VIII  gave  himself  and  his  attend- 
ants the  pleasure  of  a  day's  stay  at  this  house  when  making 
a  journey  to  the  north.  He  was  "so  charmed  by  the  spot  " 
by  what  he  saw  of  it  at  this  time  or  some  other,  that  he 
wanted  it  "  for  his  own,"  and,  as  Dr.  Dexter  tells  us,  he 
actually  bought  it  a  few  years  afterwards,  though  at  a 
later  date  it  was  sold  back  to  the  bishop  who  made  provision 
that  at  his  death  it  should  revert  to  the  See  of  York.  Eliz- 
abeth coveted  the  estate,  and  sought  to  secure  possession  of 
it  under  a  long  lease,  but  Sandys,  who  was  then  the  arch- 
bishop, had  the  self-respect  and  courage  to  refuse  the 
request. 

But  of  all  the  rulers  and  high  officials  who  at  one  time 
and  another  were  guests  or  occupants  of  the  old  manor 
house,  the  one  who  excites  in  our  breasts  the  most  lively 
and  pathetic  interest  is  the  man  who  for  a  decade  and  a  half 
carried  the  great  seal  of  the  lord  chancellor  of  England, 
and  then  had  to  surrender  it,  and,  leaving  civil  affairs  alone, 
retire  discredited  to  his  archbishopric.  Cardinal  Wolsey, 
when  broken  in  health  and  spirit,  and  excluded  from  court 
by  the  ambitious  and  unscrupulous  king  whom  he  had 
served  only  too  faithfully,  found  here  an  agreeable  retreat. 
He  had  a  right  to  the  retreat  and  to  all  the  comfort  which 
the  place  could  afford  him;  for  it  was  under  his  control 
as  the  highest  ecclesiastic  of  York.  How  strange  it  must 
have  seemed  to  him  to  be  there,  and  how  different  from  the 
days,  not  very  far  back,  when  "  no  man's  pie  "  was  "  freed 
from  his  ambitious  finger " !  How  little  he  could  have 
imagined  that,  inside  of  his  fourscore  years,  a  new  and  ad- 
vanced body  of  the  "  pernicious  sect  of  the  Lutherans  " 
whom  he  hated  so  bitterly,  and  whom  he  advised  the  king, 
among  the  last  written  words  which  he  gave  to  the  world, 
to  "  depress,"  was  to  have  housing  and  encouragement 
within  this  ancient  enclosure  where  he  was  finding  refresh- 
ment and  repose!  How  little,  too,  he  could  have  imagined 
that  in  the  simple  but  positive  attitude  which  this  "  perni- 
cious sect "  took,  and  in  the  few,  yet  apparently  insignifi- 
cant deeds  which  it  did,  it  was  to  invest  the  spot  with  an 
imperishable  human  interest ! 

But  this  is  what  had  come  to  pass.     The  gates  of  this 


60  THE    PILGRIMS 

manor  house  were  open,  and  its  doors  were  swinging  back 
at  the  touch  of  these  simple  folk  —  the  most  of  them  plain 
farmers  —  who  sought  some  quiet  and  secluded  retreat 
where  they  might  join  with  each  other  in  mutual  consulta- 
tion, and  meet  God  in  reverent  and  humble  worship,  and 
make  known  their  common  desires  at  the  throne  of  grace. 
It  was  no  longer  mere  recreation,  nor  aimless  lounging,  nor 
boisterous  revelry,  to  which  the  walls  of  that  old  building 
were  witness,  but  voices  of  thanksgiving  and  supplica- 
tion and  bendings  of  the  knee  to  the  Almighty.  The  house 
of  rest  and  refection  had  become  a  house  of  prayer,  and 
men  were  crossing  its  threshold  and  occupying  its  ample  but 
secluded  rooms  that  they  might  hold  communion  with  God, 
and  learn  and  obey  his  will,  and  have  the  exceeding  comfort 
of  his  presence. 

IV 

That  of  all  men  in  the  world  William  Brewster  should 
have  been  in  the  old  manor  house  at  this  particular  time, 

is  one  of  the  marked  providences  of  the  situa- 
A  marked  tion.  Yet  it  all  came  about  in  a  very  natural 
providence     way.      Through   the   system   of   leases    under 

which  it  was  managed,  the  property  fell  under 
the  control  of  this  wise  and  determined  Separatist.  For 
purely  business  purposes  the  estate  was  for  the  time 
being  in  his  hands.  From  1594  to  1607,  or  during  those 
years  which  covered  tke  most  critical  period  in  the  early 
and  formative  stages  of  the  churches  at  Gainsborough  and 
Scrooby,  William  Brewster  carried  the  key  and  opened  and 
shut  the  doors  of  this  most  convenient  palatial  residence.  In 
this  simple  circumstance  what  aid  there  was  to  a  despised 
and  struggling  cause !  How  much  there  was  in  it  to  shape 
destiny !  How  different  might  have  been  the  outcome  of 
the  whole  contest  had  some  man  other  than  William  Brew- 
ster held  the  lease  to  that  estate  during  the  eventful  years 
when  these  individual  dissenters  needed,  not  only  a  leader 
of  sagacity  and  resources,  but  just  such  an  opportunity 
as  this  building  afforded  to  be  welded  into  a  united,  com- 
pact, and  enduring  body! 


THE    PILGRIMS  61 

M  The  threads  our  hands  in  blindness  spin 
No  self-determined  plan  weaves  in; 
The  shuttle  of  the  unseen  powers 
Works  out  a  pattern  not  as  ours." 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  how  these  people  gathered  for  medi- 
tation and  worship  on  the  Lord's  Day.  The  picture  is 
half  pathetic,  and  yet  pleasant  to  contemplate.  No  bell 
summoned  them,  and  no  tap  of  drum ;  and  no  palfrey  bore 
them  easily  and  ostentatiously  to  their  extemporized 
sanctuary.  On  their  guard  against  spies  and  informers, 
they  moved  out  from  their  homes  with  cautious  steps  and 
minds  alert.  They  were  careful  not  to  get  bunched  in 
too  large  numbers  lest  they  might  attract  attention  and 
awaken  suspicion.  One  by  one,  or  at  most  two  by  two, 
they  moved  on  quietly  to  the  place  appointed.  If  it  was 
necessary  for  one  here  or  there  to  hurry  his  pace  or  to 
slacken  it  in  order  to  avoid  making  too  large  a  group,  the 
thing  was  instinctively  done.  Instead  of  lingering  about 
the  doorway  and  extending  kindly  greetings  and  asking 
after  neighbors  and  friends  who  might  be  ill,  they  all  passed 
in  and  were  quickly  out  of  sight.  These  simple  but  sincere 
and  intensely  earnest  men  and  women  were  William  Brew- 
ster's guests.  They  were  in  his  home  on  his  invitation, 
and  he  treated  them  with  an  open-handed  hospitality.  Not 
only  did  he  open  his  doors  to  them  and  furnish  them  with 
suitable  apartments  for  their  meetings,  but  he  looked  after 
their  bodily  comfort  and  fed  and  refreshed  them.  "  Long 
afterwards,  and  far  away,  they  remembered  their  meetings 
in  Brewster's  home,  and  that  '  with  great  love  he  enter- 
tained them  when  they  came,  making  provision  for  them  to 
his  great  cost.'  " 

But  the  old  manor  house  is  gone.  Long  ago  it  became 
a  mere  tradition.  Inside  of  fifty  years  probably,  after 
Brewster  and  his  associates  in  faith  made  it  their  gathering 
place,  it  was  taken  down,  and  a  farmhouse  was  erected 
on  or  near  the  site  of  it.  This  is  what  one  sees  who  visits 
the  spot  now  —  an  ordinary  English  farmhouse. 

Other  facts  and  incidents  of  special  interest  in  regard  to 
the  town  and  manor  house  are  given  by  Dr.  Griffis  in  his 
"  Pilgrims  In  Their  Three  Homes."     But  one  who  wishes 


62  THE    PILGRIMS 

to  make  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  subject,  and  to  know 
all  which  it  seems  possible  to  know  concerning  the  locality 
and  the  house,  will  turn  to  "  The  England  and  Holland  of 
the  Pilgrims  "  by  the  Dexters.  The  few  details  here  sup- 
plied, however,  would  seem  to  be  enough  to  furnish  a  clear 
notion  of  the  historical  setting  and  the  natural  environ- 
ment of  the  little  Pilgrim  church  at  Scrooby.  It  is  doubtful 
if  either  the  interesting  story  of  the  sharp  contests  of  the 
past  which  had  taken  place  within  their  bounds,  or  the 
soft,  beautiful  landscape  in  the  midst  of  which  their  lives 
were  cast,  had  much  influence  on  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
the  Separatists.  Life  with  them  was  too  strenuous  for  this 
kind  of  indulgence  or  gratification.  They  were  too  much 
concerned  with  the  grave  questions  then  and  there  confront- 
ing them;  too  much  on  fire  with  zeal  for  a  holy  cause  to 
give  thought  to  historical  researches,  or  to  yield  to  the  spell 
of  esthetic  attractions.  How  to  recover  and  be  secure  in 
their  natural  rights  of  walking  with  God  in  ways  approved 
by  their  own  reason  and  conscience  was  what  filled  their 
minds  and  controlled  their  actions. 


It  is  here  at  Scrooby,  in  connection  with  the  little  Separa- 
tist church  which  met  in  the  old  manor  house,  that  we 

make  our  first  acquaintance,  or,  if  we  have 
Names  ot  known  something  of  them  before,  come  into 
leaders  more  intimate   association   with  names   which 

are  dear  to  the  hearts  of  their  descendants  on 
this  side  of  the  water,  and  some  of  which  are  destined  to 
endure  as  long  as  the  Pilgrim  story  shall  be  told. 

VI 

Any  enumeration  of  the  men  of  influence  who  composed 
the  Scrooby  church  must  begin  with  Richard  Clyfton.    He 

was  a  Derbyshire  man,  and  past  fifty  years 
Clyfton  0f  age  wnen  he  openly  identified  himself  with 

the  Separatist  movement.  Bradford  in  his 
commendation  of  his  ability  and  character  links  his  name 
with  Robinson  and  Brewster,  and  says  of  him  that  he  was 


THE    PILGRIMS  63 

"  a  grave  and  revered  preacher,  who  by  his  pains  and  dili- 
gence had  done  much  good,  and  under  God  had  been  the 
means  of  the  conversion  of  many."  Considering  how  things 
were  going  with  the  average  minister  in  those  days  this 
was  high  tribute,  especially  the  avowal  that  "  under  God  " 
he  was  "  the  means  of  the  conversion  of  many."  Neither 
Paul  nor  Edwards  nor  Finney  nor  Spurgeon  would  have 
thought  anything  better  could  be  said  of  himself  and  his 
work. 

For  years  he  was  settled  at  Babworth,  seven  or  eight 
miles  distant  from  Scrooby.  He  was  the  minister  whom 
young  Bradford  used  to  go  ten  miles  or  more  to  hear,  and 
who  helped  the  earnest  lad  into  the  light  and  joy  of  salva- 
tion. This  was  while  he  was  still  a  clergyman  in  the  Es- 
tablished Church.  Just  why  and  when  he  left  Babworth  — 
abandoned  a  living  for  Separatism  —  are  questions  on 
which  we  have  no  light,  except  the  inference  that  he  was  a 
devoted  and  conscientious  minister  of  the  gospel,  and  could 
no  longer  reconcile  it  to  his  moral  sense  to  remain  in  a 
compromising  attitude.  A  man  at  once  intelligent,  faith- 
ful, and  sincere,  his  honest  study  of  the  Scriptures  and  his 
earnest  preaching  of  the  truth  as  he  found  it,  could  hardly 
have  failed  to  convince  him  that  his  place  was  with  the 
despised  and  persecuted  few  who  had  come  to  see  their  duty 
in  the  new  light,  which  was,  after  all,  only  the  old  light 
rekindled. 

He  was  the  first  pastor  of  the  flock  which  gathered  from 
Sunday  to  Sunday  in  the  old  manor  house.  This  was  only 
natural;  for  he  was  an  accredited  minister,  a  man  of 
marked  ability,  of  high  character  and  deep  conviction, 
well  known  in  the  vicinity,  and  personally  known,  most 
likely,  to  the  larger  number  of  the  congregation,  and  well 
fitted  by  age  and  experience  to  be  a  trustworthy  guide 
and  comforter  in  those  times  of  perplexity  and  trouble. 
Hence  he  was  one  to  whom  this  afflicted  people  would  turn 
in  confidence.  Whether  he  had  been  duly  "  called "  and 
regularly  "  installed  "  in  the  office  of  pastor  by  the  circle 
of  believers  with  whom  he  was  associated  is  a  matter  of 
small  concern.  Some  things  look  as  if  there  had  been 
no  formal  action  of  this  kind,  especially  the  fact  —  a  fact 


64  THE    PILGRIMS 

whose  significance  seems  to  have  been  overlooked  by  those 
who  have  debated  this  question  —  that  Robinson  is  known 
to  have  been  recognized  as  the  pastor  of  this  church  while 
yet  in  Amsterdam.  Neither  the  people  nor  Robinson 
would  have  consented  to  displace  Clyfton  had  he  ever  been 
formally  established  in  this  position.  Still,  though  only 
"  acting  "  pastor,  as  we  should  say,  he  was  pastor ;  and 
the  hungry  sheep  looked  up  to  him  and  were  fed. 

Clyfton  was  one  of  the  last  of  the  Scrooby  company  to 
reach  Holland.  He  had  remained  behind  evidently  to  aid 
in  covering  the  retreat.  He  was  deeply  interested  in  the 
questions  which  were  exciting  and  confusing  the  minds  of 
many  of  the  Separatists  at  Amsterdam,  and  his  pen  had  a 
share  in  the  discussions  which  the  bitter  controversy  awak- 
ened. He  did  not  join  in  the  removal  from  Amsterdam  to 
Leyden.  He  had  a  warm  esteem  for  the  Scrooby  brethren, 
and  in  turn  he  was  warmly  esteemed  by  them,  but  respon- 
sibilities and  anxieties  seem  to  have  aged  him  prematurely, 
and  he  had  no  heart  for  further  searchings  for  a  home. 
When  Robinson  and  his  adherents  decided  to  journey  fur- 
ther, Clyfton  sought  and  received  a  letter  of  dismission 
from  the  Scrooby  church  and  of  recommendation  to  the 
"  Ancient  Church,"  of  which  we  shall  hear  somewhat  more, 
in  Amsterdam.  This  ended  his  connection  —  a  brief,  but 
an  honorable  and  helpful  connection  —  with  the  Pilgrim 
movement.  In  1616,  at  the  age  of  sixty-three,  Clyfton 
died.  He  died  comparatively  young,  but  he  had  fallen 
into  line  with  the  providence  of  God,  and  his  life  was  made 
an  effective  force  for  the  bettering  of  things  in  church  and 
state. 

But  the  men  who  were  most  prominent  in  this  movement, 
and  whose  influence  was  the  most  commanding,  and  whose 
figures  cast  the  longest  shadows  across  the  centuries,  were 
Brewster,  Bradford,  and  Robinson. 


THE    PILGRIMS  65 


VII 

William  Brewster  was  at  once  a  man  of  convictions  and 
of  affairs.  He  knew  how  to  bring  things  to  pass.  In  natu- 
ral sagacity,  in  trustworthiness,  in  courage,  and  in  expe- 
rience, he  was  eminently  qualified  to  be  a  leader. 
Brewster  Both  the  place  and  time  of  his  birth  are  mat- 

ters of  inference.  The  strong  probabilities 
are  that  Scrooby  was  his  native  town.  Most  writers  assert 
this  without  much  hesitation.  Indications  point  to  1566 
as  the  year  when  he  was  born.  Steele,  in  his  "  Life  of 
Brewster  "  makes  the  year  1560.  In  fixing  on  this  date  he 
followed  Morton,  who  was  clearly  in  the  wrong.  Dexter 
brought  to  light  an  affidavit  made  by  Brewster  at  Leyden  in 
1609  in  which  he  asserted  that  he  was  "  about  forty  two  " 
years  of  age.  This  would  locate  his  birth  in  1567.  But 
the  "  about "  in  the  statement,  and  other  considerations  not 
necessary  to  be  named,  justify  the  conclusion  that  1566  is 
the  correct  date.  The  month  and  the  day  cannot  be 
determined. 

Young  Brewster  entered  Peterhouse  College  at  Cam- 
bridge University  in  the  latter  part  of  1580.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  he  completed  a  full  course  of  instruction.  On 
the  contrary  it  is  quite  clear  that  he  did  not.  But  while 
his  opportunities  for  formal  culture  were  limited,  and 
practical  affairs  rather  than  lectures  and  books  were  made 
his  teachers,  it  is  to  be  said  that  in  association  with  persons 
of  learning  and  eminence,  in  successfully  meeting  the  grave 
and  delicate  responsibilities  which  were  thrown  upon  him, 
and  in  chances  afforded  him  to  study  the  lives  and  char- 
acter and  to  observe  the  manners  and  customs  of  people 
other  than  the  English,  he  soon  came  to  have  what  must  be 
regarded  as  much  more  than  the  equivalent  of  an  ordinary 
liberal  education  of  his  time.  He  knew  not  a  little  of  books, 
and  he  knew  a  great  deal  of  men.  He  was  the  providential 
man  of  the  hour.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  there  could  have 
been  any  Scrooby  movement  without  Brewster  to  be  the  or- 
ganizing and  directing  force  of  it.  Touch  these  Scrooby 
people  anywhere,  and  it  is  the  throb  of  Brewster's  life  that 

5 


66  THE    PILGRIMS 

is  felt.  Trace  any  of  the  streams  of  their  most  important 
actions,  and  Brewster  will  be  found  to  be  the  fountain  from 
which  the  streams  flow. 

How  came  William  Brewster  into  this  knowledge  of  men 
and  the  varied  experience  which  fitted  him  so  peculiarly  for 
the  service  he  was  to  render?  He  had  native  gifts,  it  is 
clear,  especially  in  the  line  of  things  practical,  quite  above 
the  average ;  but  how  came  he  to  know  the  world  so  well,  and 
to  have  an  experience  so  much  wider  than  the  other  Separa- 
tists with  whom  he  was  identified?  The  answer  is  near  at 
hand  and  simple.  It  lies  folded  up  in  the  career  of  William 
Davison. 

Davison,  starting  in  public  life  as  private  secretary  to 
Sir  Henry  Killigrew,  an  English  ambassador,  came  to 
hold  a  high  position  in  the  court  of  Elizabeth ; 
Davison's  an(j?  while  he  ultimately  fell  out  of  her  favor 
influence  an(j  jja(j  j.Q  suffer  for  ft,  the  queen  had  so 
on  Brew-  much  confidence  in  his  loyalty  and  tact,  that 
ster  in  the  earlier  period  of  his  political  life  she 

was  wont  to  employ  him  in  some  of  the  many 
difficult  tasks  of  diplomacy  in  which  she  was  always  en- 
gaged. It  was  this  man  who  was  sent  by  Elizabeth  to 
Scotland  in  1583  to  prevent  the  formation  of  a  treaty, 
offensive  and  defensive,  which  Catherine  de  Medici,  acting 
through  her  son,  Henry  III,  who  was  the  nominal,  but  only 
the  nominal,  ruler  of  France  at  this  time,  was  trying  to 
conclude  with  James  VI,  who  was  subsequently  to  appear 
on  the  stage  as  James  I  of  England.  It  was  this  man  who, 
a  couple  of  years  after  having  tried  his  skill  at  secret 
negotiations  in  Scotland,  was  made  the  queen's  envoy  to 
Holland  to  fix  the  terms  on  which  the  Dutch  were  to  receive 
the  aid  of  England  in  their  unutterably  significant  and 
tremendous  struggle  with  Spain.  Thus  Brewster  was  close 
to  the  springs  of  action  at  a  momentous  hour  in  the  history 
of  liberty  and  independent  thinking  and  self-government. 
To  be  associated  with  such  a  man  at  such  a  crisis  in  the 
progress  of  church  and  state,  was  a  rare  opportunity  for 
getting  into  touch  with  men  and  movements. 

Just  when  or  where  or  on  what  conditions  Brewster  first 
entered  the  service  which  in  no  long  time  brought  him  into 


THE    PILGRIMS  67 

close  personal  relations  with  Davison  is  not  known.  It 
has  been  conjectured  that  on  the  mission  of  diplomacy 
from  the  court  of  Elizabeth  to  the  court  of  James,  to  which 
reference  has  just  been  made,  the  envoy  may  have  stopped 
at  the  manor  house,  and  had  his  attention  attracted  to 
the  boy  —  now  well  along  toward  young  manhood  —  by 
some  particular  act  of  efficiency  and  courtesy,  or  by  his 
general  intelligence  and  promise.  It  is  possible,  however, 
that  the  two  had  never  met  at  Scrooby,  or,  if  they  had, 
had  never  had  any  intercourse,  and  that  Brewster  was 
originally  employed  by  Davison  on  the  recommendation 
of  influential  personages  at  York  —  bishops  or  their  subor- 
dinates —  inasmuch  as  these  men  knew  both  the  father 
and  son ;  or  by  instructors  of  standing  at  Cambridge  who 
may  naturally  be  supposed  to  have  had  a  high  idea  of  the 
merits  and  prospects  of  their  recent  pupil. 

But  in  whatever  way  it  had  been  brought  about  Brewster 
was  with  Davison,  and  he  had  all  the  advantages  which 
intimate  association  with  him,  at  a  time  when  he  had  im- 
portant duties  to  discharge  both  abroad  in  Holland  and  at 
home  in  London,  could  possibly  afford.  These  advantages 
were  all  the  greater  because  of  the  special  interest  which 
Davison  took  in  the  young  man;  for,  from  the  outset, 
Brewster  seems  to  have  had  a  warm  place  in  the  love  and 
confidence  of  his  superior.  Bradford  tells  us  that  this 
high  officer  of  state  esteemed  his  assistant  as  a  son  rather 
than  a  servant,  and  was  so  assured  of  his  discretion  and 
fidelity  that  he  gave  him  the  preeminence  among  those 
about  him,  and  was  wont  to  commit  to  him  the  handling  of 
matters  which  required  special  skill  and  secrecy.  It  im- 
poses no  strain  on  probability  to  imagine  that  the  two 
may  have  talked  together  of  the  things  of  God  and  the 
soul  as  well  as  of  diplomacy  and  war. 

Indeed  this  is  more  than  probable.  "  Davison,"  as  Dr. 
Griffis  says,  "  had  long  lived  in  Antwerp,  where  his  children 
were  born,  and  where  he  was  an  elder  in  the  English  Puri- 
tan Church."  He  was  a  man  of  sufficient  ability  and  intelli- 
gence to  understand  thoroughly  the  underlying  issues  of  the 
great  struggle  between  Holland  and  Spain,  and  likewise 
the  life-and-death  contest  which  the  forces  of  conservatism 


68  THE    PILGRIMS 

and  progress  were  waging  in  England ;  and  he  was  a  man 
of  sufficient  heart  and  moral  earnestness  to  be  deeply  con- 
cerned for  the  welfare  of  religion.  He  saw  that  a  true, 
vital  faith  and  the  interests  of  the  people  were  bound  up 
in  one  bundle.  Brewster,  with  his  nature  and  training  and 
connections,  could  not  sit  at  the  feet  of  such  a  teacher  and 
listen  to  his  sober  and  confidential  opinions  on  current  ques- 
tions without  getting  a  new  conception  of  the  import  and 
dignity  of  the  problems  which  were  pressing  for  solution, 
and  feeling  the  currents  of  a  fresh  enthusiasm  pulsing  in 
his  soul,  and  becoming  in  every  way  broader  and  larger. 

Writers  whose  pages  cover  the  Holland  and  London  sec- 
tions of  the  career  of  Brewster  are  fond  of  telling  us  how 
the  keys  of  Flushing  —  one  of  the  cities  assigned  for  the 
time  by  Holland  to  England  in  pledge  of  the  good  faith 
of  the  Dutch,  and  of  their  purpose  to  meet  the  obligations 
of  the  new  treaty  made  with  Elizabeth  —  were  put  into  his 
keeping,  and  that  he  slept  with  them  under  his  pillow ;  and 
how  the  gold  chain  with  which  the  Dutch  States  had  hon- 
ored Davison  in  testimony  of  their  appreciation  of  his  char- 
acter and  services,  on  their  return  and  arrival  in  England, 
was  placed  by  the  distinguished  ambassador  on  his  cher- 
ished attendant,  that  thus  decorated  he  might  make  his 
progress  up  to  London  and  be  ushered  into  the  presence  of 
the  queen.  It  is  no  wonder.  Such  stories  have  their  value 
as  showing  the  kind  of  men  Davison  and  Brewster  both  were. 
They  show,  too,  the  tender  consideration  with  which  the 
older  uniformly  treated  the  younger  and  the  genuine  stuff 
of  which  the  younger  was  thought  to  be  made. 

But  the  significant  facts  —  the  facts  to  be  emphasized 
—  are  that  Brewster  was  in  close  association  with  a  man 
who  had  the  intelligence  and  training,  the  commanding 
character  and  standing  among  his  fellows,  and  the  positive 
Puritan  convictions  of  Davison;  that  through  Davison  he 
was  made  acquainted  with  the  methods  and  initiated  into 
some  of  the  mysteries  of  diplomatic  circles  and  court  life; 
and  that  his  residence  among  the  Dutch  in  circumstances 
which  enabled  him  to  get  at  both  the  inside  and  outside  life 
of  the  people  must  have  given  him  a  fresh  sense  of  the  worth 
and  practicability  of  religious  freedom.     These  were  the 


THE    PILGRIMS  69 

opportunities  and  influences  extending  through  a  year  in 
Holland  and  an  indefinite  though  considerable  time  in  Lon- 
don, by  which  there  came  to  him  the  wide  experience  that 
made  him  a  clear-headed  man  of  affairs,  and  fitted  him  in 
due  time  to  be  an  intelligent  and  resolute  Separatist  leader. 
Had  this  young  Englishman  been  a  dull  student  of  history 
and  a  purblind  observer  of  passing  events,  he  must  have 
learned  something  of  consequence  about  civil  and  religious 
liberty  from  this  daily  mingling  with  a  people  whose  blood 
had  fertilized  the  soil  they  had  wrested  from  the  sea,  in 
whose  homes  there  were  innumerable  sad  yet  proud  memen- 
tos of  the  patriotic  devotion  of  fathers  and  sons,  and  whose 
great  leader  had  but  recently  paid  the  price  of  his  great- 
ness by  falling  at  the  hands  of  an  assassin.  He  was,  how- 
ever, neither  a  dull  student  nor  a  purblind  observer,  but 
an  open-eyed  onlooker,  a  man  capable  of  rational  reflec- 
tions and  sober  conclusions,  and  we  may  be  sure  that  he 
came  back  to  his  native  land  with  a  new  confidence  in  de- 
mocracy for  both  state  and  church. 

But  after  so  much  time  spent  with  Davison,  and  all  in 
a  way  so  satisfactory,  why  did  Brewster  return  to  Scrooby  ? 

The  story  is  startling  in  the  surprise  of  it,  and 
Why  Brew-  uncovers  one  of  those  strange  turns  in  provi- 
ster  left  dence  which  seem  so  insignificant  in  themselves, 
Davison         but  which  are  immeasurably  important  in  the 

final  issues  which  they  determine.  For  reasons 
of  state  it  was  decided  that  Mary  Stuart  must  be  put  out 
of  the  way.  This  fair  and  fascinating  woman  was  the 
storm-center  of  her  time.  She  was  the  occasion  of  innu- 
merable plots  and  intrigues ;  and  so  long  as  the  Queen  of 
Scots  was  permitted  to  live,  neither  the  throne  on  which 
Elizabeth  sat,  nor  the  Reformation,  nor  the  peace  of  the 
realm,  was  thought  to  be  secure.  Held  in  imprisonment  for 
eighteen  years  —  first  at  Lochleven,  and  during  the  latter 
part  of  the  term  in  Fotheringay  Castle,  and,  after  many 
schemes  for  rising  to  power  and  advancing  the  Catholic 
cause,  finally  detected  in  what  is  known  in  history  as  the 
Babington  conspiracy  to  murder  the  queen  —  Mary  was 
at  length  pronounced  guilty  by  a  commission  of  peers, 
who  tried  her.    There  was  a  wide  demand  for  her  immedi- 


70  THE    PILGRIMS 

ate  execution.  "  The  streets  of  London,"  so  Green  says, 
"  blazed  with  bonfires,  and  peals  rang  out  from  steeple  to 
steeple  at  the  news  of  the  condemnation."  But  Elizabeth 
shrank  from  this  last  step.  Only  under  a  pressure  which 
she  felt  unable  to  resist  did  she  consent  to  sign  the  death- 
warrant.  It  fell  to  Davison,  who,  in  virtue  of  his  abilities 
and  character,  had  risen  to  be  full  secretary  of  state,  to 
have  conspicuous  connection  with  this  transaction.  For  an 
act  in  which  he  did  exactly  what  she  told  him  to  do,  the 
queen,  in  the  fury  of  one  of  her  strange  caprices,  deprived 
him  of  his  office,  and  thrust  him  into  the  Tower.  No  en- 
treaties of  his  friends  could  induce  the  unreasonable  ruler 
to  restore  him  to  his  place,  or  remit  his  fine,  which  was 
ruinously  heavy.  At  length  he  appears  to  have  been  re- 
leased from  prison ;  but  he  was  a  broken  man  and  did  not 
long  survive  the  unjust  and  bitter  treatment.  But  as  long 
as  he  could  be  of  service  to  his  chief,  Brewster  did  not  desert 
him.  He  stood  by  him  in  his  humiliation  and  need.  At 
length  there  was  no  more  which  he  could  do  and  no  further 
occasion  for  his  service.  The  young  secretary  was  set 
adrift,  and  there  was  left  him,  quite  likely,  no  alternative 
but  to  go  back  to  Scrooby.  Here  in  a  short  time  he  suc- 
ceeded his  father  in  the  management,  under  lease  from  the 
archbishop  of  York,  of  the  estate  on  which  the  manor 
house  was  situated.  He  was  also  appointed  to  the  position 
which  we  should  call  that  of  postmaster ;  though  the  duties 
of  the  office  were  not  receiving  and  distributing  letters,  but 
attending  to  the  forwarding  of  despatches  and  facilitating 
the  movements  of  messengers.  The  position  was  one  of 
honor,  and  the  salary  was  a  liberal  one  for  the  time. 

But  the  significant  fact  is  that  it  was  the  beheading  of 
Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  which  took  Brewster  back  to  Scrooby. 

As  it  seems  to  be  evident  from  a  study  of  the 
The  Queen  facts  that  Brewster  was  the  organizing  spirit 
of  Scotsand  0f  the  Separatists  of  Scrooby,  and  that,  as  has 
Plymouth  j^n  SSi{^  already,  it  is  very  doubtful  if  there 
Bock  ever  woui(j  nave  been  any  Scrooby  church  and 

any  Scrooby  movement  had  it  not  been  for 
Brewster  and  the  manor  house,  so  it  is  highly  probable 
that  had  it  not  been  for  the  taking  off  of  the  head  of  this 


THE    PILGRIMS  71 

long-imprisoned  and  menacing  Mary  Stuart,  Brewster 
would  not  have  been  at  Scrooby  and  in  the  manor  house, 
but  would  have  remained  in  the  service  of  the  crown,  so  long, 
at  any  rate,  as  Elizabeth  continued  to  reign,  and  easily 
risen  to  the  place  of  a  high  secretary  or  ambassador  to 
foreign  courts.  Relief  would  have  come  in  other  ways, 
doubtless,  and  from  other  sources,  and  the  Separatist  move- 
ment would  have  found  other  hands  to  guide  it  and  other 
channels  in  which  to  flow ;  but  the  stages  of  progress  would 
not  have  been  just  what  they  were ;  and  the  connection  —  in 
a  certain  sense  so  sternly  logical  —  between  the  death  of 
Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  and  Plymouth  Rock  would  not  have 
been  so  close  and  manifest.  That  death  was  a  significant 
link  in  the  mighty  chain  of  God's  providence. 


vni 

William  Bradford  is  a  name  that  we  speak  with  tender 
reverence.  In  the  rare  group  of  men  who  stood  at  the 
front  and  were  largely  influential  in  directing 
Bradford  the  affairs  of  the  New  England  colonies  in  their 
initial  stages,  he  was  conspicuous  for  his  lov- 
ableness.  Not  so  headstrong  and  overzealous  as  Endicott, 
not  so  well  qualified  to  conduct  large  business  enterprises 
and  to  take  broad  views  of  statesmanship  as  Winthrop,  not 
so  self-willed  and  aggressive  as  Williams,  not  so  acute  as 
Haynes,  nor  so  philosophical  and  profound  in  his  thinking 
on  fundamental  principles  as  Hooker,  not  so  poised  in  mas- 
sive common  sense  and  old-world  dignity  as  Eaton  nor  so 
brilliant  and  eloquent  as  Davenport,  he  was  yet  the  supe- 
rior of  them  all  in  sweetness.  He  had  the  charity  which 
covers  a  multitude  of  sins  and  the  fine  patience  which  avoids 
mistakes  by  making  haste  slowly.  He  could  be  firm  when 
occasion  called  for  firmness,  and  he  was  never  known  to  be 
false  to  his  convictions;  but  he  was  always  kind  and  con- 
siderate. His  heart  was  a  fountain  of  sympathies  from 
which  men  in  need  could  draw  at  will. 

The  place  where  Bradford  was  born  is  Austerfield,  a 
little  hamlet  lying  just  beyond  Bawtry,  and  about  two  miles 


72  THE    PILGRIMS 

directly  north  of  Scrooby.  The  church  in  which  he  was 
baptized  was  the  small  bit  of  ancient  architecture  called 
St.  Helen's,  in  the  same  town.  But  neither  the  day  nor  the 
month  nor  even  the  year  in  which  this  child  with  so  large  and 
fruitful  a  future  came  into  the  world  is  certain ;  though  it  is 
probable  that  his  birth  occurred  in  the  early  part  of  1589. 
If  this  guess  is  right,  Bradford  and  Endicott  were  of  the 
same  age.  Winthrop  was  a  year  older,  while  Roger  Williams 
was  little  more  than  an  infant  in  arms  when  Bradford 
was  compelled  to  leave  England  for  Holland.  Brewster 
was  at  least  twenty-two  and  possibly  twenty-three  years 
his  senior.  Very  closely,  however,  were  the  hearts  of  the 
two  men  knit  together  in  mutual  respect  and  in  loyalty  to 
a  common  cause.  From  first  to  last,  in  England  and  Hol- 
land and  America,  they  lived  in  an  unbroken  and  beautiful 
fellowship.  "  My  dear  and  loving  friend  "  is  the  language 
with  which  Bradford  characterized  him  when  the  faithful 
elder  had  laid  aside  the  burden  of  his  fourscore  years  and 
passed  on  to  share  in  the  rewards  and  glories  of  the  world 
beyond. 

For  meeting  the  storm  which  was  about  to  break  upon 
them,  Brewster  had  the  advantage  in  maturity  of  mind  and 
in  knowledge  of  affairs  and  in  varied  experience ;  but  Brad- 
ford had  come  into  the  faith  at  a  time  in  life  and  in  a  way 
to  kindle  his  whole  soul  with  enthusiasm  and  make  him  both 
daring  and  efficient.  It  is  worth  much  to  any  man  to  have 
had  a  sharp  and  definite  initiation  into  the  divine  life.  This 
man  was  born  early  into  the  kingdom  and  after  a  pro- 
nounced struggle. 

Affliction  was  the  schoolmaster  which  brought  him  to 
Christ.  His  father  died  when  he  was  less  than  two  years 
of  age,  and  not  long  after  this  bereavement  he  was  deprived 
of  his  mother.  At  six  he  lost  his  grandfather;  and  the 
future  care  and  training  of  the  lad  fell  to  the  charge  of 
his  uncles.  Before  he  was  twelve  he  was  visited  with  a  severe 
illness.  Bodily  pain  and  suffering  did  for  him  what  his 
uncles  had  neither  the  disposition  nor  the  ability  to  under- 
take. The  Bible  was  opened  to  his  understanding,  the 
privileges  which  all  souls  have  in  the  Redeemer  were  re- 
vealed to  him,  and  through  the  ministry  of  the  Spirit  and 


BRADFORD  COTTAGE,  AUSTERFIELD 


THE  CHURCH  IN  AUSTERFIELD 


THE    PILGRIMS  73 

the  counsel  of  faithful  friends  —  more  especially  the  counsel 
of  the  Rev.  Richard  Clyfton,  who  was  then  pastor  of  the 
church  at  Babworth,  and  afterward  for  a  brief  time  pastor, 
or  at  any  rate  acting  pastor,  of  the  church  at  Scrooby  — 
he  came  under  the  power  of  the  endless  life,  and  in  a  little 
time  identified  himself,  heart  and  soul,  with  the  Separatists. 

Efforts  were  made  to  dissuade  him  from  his  course;  but 
"  neither  could  the  wrath  of  his  uncles,  nor  the  scoff  of  his 
neighbors,  now  turned  upon  him  as  one  of  the  Puritans, 
divert  him  from  his  pious  inclinations."  He  had  had  such 
a  well-defined  experience  of  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  and 
of  his  forgiving  grace,  he  had  such  regard  for  truth,  he 
saw  the  way  of  duty  so  clearly,  and  he  was  so  convinced  of 
the  transcendent  value  there  is  in  a  divinely  enlightened 
and  approving  conscience,  that  he  preferred  the  loss  of  all 
things,  and  even  life  itself,  to  the  surrender  of  his  faith.  It 
is  this  kind  of  experience  which  makes  men  lion-hearted, 
and  gives  to  the  Cromwells  of  the  world  the  invincible 
Ironsides  with  which  to  fight  their  battles.  In  the  adhe- 
sion of  Bradford  to  the  Separatist  cause  Brewster  was  re- 
enforced  not  only  by  a  choice  man,  but  by  a  man  who  had 
seen  the  heavens  opened  and  the  angels  of  God  ascending 
and  descending,  and  who  had  been  inwardly  girded  by  the 
Almighty. 

Eminent  for  his  sweetness  of  disposition  and  his  many 
lovable  traits,  it  must  not  be  thought  for  a  moment  that 
Bradford  was  in  any  wise  a  weak  man.  On  the  contrary, 
he  had  aptitudes,  and  a  combination  of  qualities  which  made 
him  very  strong.  His  immediate  ancestors  seem  to  have 
had  some  local  distinction.  He  inherited  a  little  property. 
There  are  indications  that  he  moved  in  the  best  circles  of 
the  community.  But  the  talk  of  which  he  was  likely  to 
hear  most  was  of  farming  operations  and  prospects,  while 
his  school  privileges  were  necessarily  limited.  He  had  the 
inclinations  and  tastes  of  a  scholar,  and  the  versatility  which 
would  have  given  him  success  in  any  one  of  the  departments 
of  learning  then  open  to  students,  and  he  may  have  longed 
in  his  youthful  days  to  go  up  to  Cambridge,  as  Brewster 
had  done ;  but  there  was  no  one  to  send  him,  or  to  lend  him 
encouragement  in  his  aspirations.     But  in  quickness  of 


74  THE    PILGRIMS 

apprehension,  in  moral  integrity,  in  every-day  wisdom,  and 
in  capacity  for  culture,  there  were  few  to  surpass  him. 
Above  all,  he  was  a  man  of  weight.  When  he,  with  his 
sound  judgment  and  unimpeachable  character,  was  put  into 
the  scales,  it  took  an  immense  amount  of  avoirdupois  on  the 
other  side  to  send  him  to  the  beam. 

Cotton  Mather,  a  writer  full  of  conceit,  it  is  true,  and 
given  to  extravagance  in  his  estimate  of  men  whom  he  ap- 
proved, has  this  to  say  of  Bradford :  "  He  was  a  person 
for  study  as  well  as  action ;  and  hence,  notwithstanding  the 
difficulties  through  which  he  passed  in  his  youth,  he  attained 
unto  a  noble  skill  in  language.  The  Dutch  tongue  was 
become  almost  as  vernacular  to  him  as  the  English.  The 
Trench  tongue  he  could  manage.  The  Latin  and  Greek  he 
had  mastered.  But  the  Hebrew  he  most  of  all  studied; 
because,  he  said  he  would  see  with  his  own  eyes  the  ancient 
oracles  of  God  in  their  native  beauty.  He  was  also  well 
skilled  in  history,  in  antiquity,  and  in  philosophy.  And 
for  theology,  he  became  so  versed  in  it,  that  he  was  an 
irrefragable  disputant  against  the  errors  —  especially  those 
of  Anabaptism  which,  with  trouble,  he  saw  rising  in  his 
colony.  Wherefore  he  wrote  some  significant  things  for  the 
confutation  of  those  errors.  But  the  crown  of  all  was  his 
holy,  prayerful,  watchful  and  fruitful  walk  with  God, 
wherein  he  was  very  exemplary."  Considering  the  differ- 
ence in  the  standards  of  learning  by  which  men  were  judged 
two  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred  years  ago  and  those 
by  which  conclusions  are  now  reached,  this  opinion  of 
the  author  of  "  Magnalia  Christi  Americana "  cannot  be 
thought  to  be  far  out  of  the  way. 

Bradford  had  not  reached  his  majority  when  he  was 
forced,  with  his  associates,  to  leave  his  native  land;  but 
the  boy  was  father  of  the  man,  and  the  stand  he  took  thus 
early  was  prophetic  of  his  future  fidelity  and  usefulness. 


THE    PILGRIMS  75 


IX 


John  Robinson  had  a  large,  well-trained  mind,  and  a 
clear  perception  of  the  situation.  His  courage  was  un- 
flinching, yet  not  noisy.  The  spirit  of  con- 
Eobinson  ciliation  and  self-sacrifice  marked  his  conduct ; 
but  nothing  could  induce  him  to  surrender  his 
loyalty  to  truth  and  duty.  His  character  was  admirable 
alike  for  its  purity  and  simplicity,  and  its  capacity  to  stand 
hard  strains.  Never  impulsive  and  rash,  he  could  be 
counted  on  in  emergencies.  Possessing  and  illustrating 
these  qualities,  he  naturally  became  the  most  commanding 
figure  in  the  circle  of  the  exiles.  He  was  not  a  reformer 
like  Luther;  he  was  not  the  originator  of  a  system  of 
theology  like  Calvin ;  he  was  not  a  determined  and  aggres- 
sive preacher  like  Knox;  he  lacked  the  organizing  genius 
of  Wesley ;  but  for  all  this  he  was  a  great  man  as  well  as 
a  good  man,  and  multitudes  in  England  and  America  rise 
up  and  call  him  blessed. 

It  comes  to  be  monotonous  to  have  to  make  the  same 
statement  over  and  over  again  concerning  the  men  who  were 
at  the  forefront  in  the  Puritan  and  Separatist  movement; 
but  it  is  a  fact  in  regard  to  Robinson,  as  well  as  many 
others  who  have  been  named,  that  both  the  time  and  place 
of  his  birth,  after  all  efforts  made  to  discover  them,  still 
remain  in  obscurity.  All  that  can  be  affirmed  is  that  he 
was  probably  a  native  of  Gainsborough,  and  that  his  year 
was  either  1575  or  1576.  If  the  Cambridge  University 
records  are  followed,  his  birth  must  be  assigned  to  the 
former  of  these  dates ;  but  if  the  Leyden  register  is  right, 
then  the  latter  date  is  the  correct  one. 

In  fairness,  however,  it  ought  to  be  said  that  a  part  of 
this  confusion  and  uncertainty  may  be  attributed  to  the 
unsettled  state  of  chronology  at  this  period.  There  was 
not  only  the  double  way  of  Old  Style  and  New  Style  em- 
ployed in  reckoning  time,  but  the  year  began  on  different 
days  in  different  countries.  In  Holland,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  year  began  with  January  first ;  but  in  Eng- 
land the  legal  year  began  on  the  25th  of  March,    Some  of 


76  THE    PILGRIMS 

these  differences  in  dates  may  have  their  explanation  in 
this  fact. 

Robinson  entered  Corpus  Christi  College  in  1592.     He 
took  the  full  course,  graduated,  and  in  due  time,  in  virtue 
of    his    scholarship    and    promise,    secured   a 
A  Cam-  fellowship.      This    was    no    small    distinction, 

bridge  Whatever  his  origin  and  social  standing,  this 

man  predestined  leader  of  thought   and  guide   of 

action  was  not  only  a  man  of  ability  but  of 
learning.  Congregationalists  come  legitimately  by  their 
traditional  interest  in  schools  and  colleges.  Three  of  these 
Scrooby  men  —  Clyfton,  Brewster,  and  Robinson  —  had 
studied  at  Cambridge  University,  and  two  of  them  had 
graduated.  Smyth  of  Gainsborough  was  also  a  Cambridge 
graduate.  To  put  a  low  estimate  on  education  is  false, 
not  only  to  one  of  the  most  cherished  aims  of  the  Puritans 
of  the  Bay  Colony,  but  to  the  memory  of  the  most  eminent 
Pilgrim  of  Scrooby  and  Leyden,  and  others  associated  with 
him. 

Having  completed  his  studies  at  Cambridge,  Robinson 
took  orders  in  the  Established  Church.  His  conversion 
and  no  doubt  his  decision  to  be  a  minister  of 
Took  orders  Jesus  Christ  were  largely  due  to  Rev.  William 
in  Estab-  Perkins,  who  was  the  public  catechist  of  his 
lished  college  and  a  warm  evangelical  preacher  of 

Church  great  power.     It  goes  without  saying  that  a 

clergyman  of  this  spirit  and  purpose  must 
have  been  a  Puritan;  but  he  was  a  conforming  Puritan. 
About  the  close  of  the  old  and  the  beginning  of  the  new 
century  Robinson  left  Cambridge  and  went  to  Norwich, 
or  the  immediate  vicinity.  But  he  was  a  new 
Saw  duty  century  man.  Cambridge  in  comparison  with 
in  new  Oxford  was  a  new  century  university.     Nor- 

light  wich  was  a  new  century  town.     The  same  in- 

fluences that  had  stirred  the  soul  of  Browne  in 
both  these  centers  of  new  century  thinking,  and  confirmed 
him  in  his  Separatist  notions,  powerfully  affected  Robinson. 
He  was  in  a  strait  betwixt  two.  Should  he  sever  his  rela- 
tions with  the  great  body  of  believers  with  which  he  was 
connected  —  cut  loose  finally  and  forever  from  its  compan- 


THE    PILGRIMS  77 

ionship,  its  employments,  and  its  promotions,  and  join  for- 
tunes with  a  few  bruised  and  scattered  people  who  had  not 
yet  risen  to  the  dignity  of  a  sect,  but  who  were  hunted  day 
and  night  by  the  subservient  tools  of  ecclesiastical  and  civil 
authority;  or  should  he  remain  where  he  was,  hampered 
in  his  plans,  vexed  of  soul,  and  with  a  conscience  ill  at  ease, 
but  hoping  still  to  do  some  little  good  under  the  limitations 
which  fretted  him  and  which  must  fret  all  sincere  and  ear- 
nest souls  ?  At  the  end  of  four  years  a  sharp  turning-point 
was  reached  in  the  road  which  he  was  traveling.  He  had 
made  such  progress  in  Puritanism,  and  was  so  bold  in 
proclaiming  his  opinions,  that  his  bishop  could  no  longer 
tolerate  him,  and  he  could  no  longer  remain  in  the  position 
he  then  occupied.  He  withdrew  from  the  State  Church, 
gave  up  his  fellowship,  and  stepped  out  into  the  world  to 
meet  and  bear  whatever  might  await  him.  It  was  all  with 
reluctance  and  pain  but  the  step  was  taken  —  never  to  be 
retraced.  One  can  but  admire  and  pity  him  as  he  is  seen 
pressing  his  way  through  the  deep  waters  of  this  bitter 
inward  conflict.  The  story  is  so  interesting  that  he  must 
be  allowed  to  tell  it  himself.  This  is  the  revealing  passage. 
It  is  taken  from  Robinson's  elaborate  and  very  able  treatise 
on  "  Dissuasion  Against  Separatism  Considered." 

"  I  do  indeed  confess  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  mine  own 
shame,  that  a  long  time  before  I  entered  this  way,  I  took 
some  taste  of  the  truth  in  it  by  some  treatises  published  in 
justification  of  it,  which,  the  Lord  knoweth,  were  sweet  as 
honey  unto  my  mouth ;  and  the  very  principal  thing,  which 
for  the  time  quenched  all  further  appetite  in  me,  was  the 
over-valuation  which  I  made  of  the  learning  and  holiness 
of  these,  and  the  like  persons,  blushing  in  myself  to  have 
a  thought  of  pressing  one  hair-breadth  before  them  in  this 
thing,  behind  whom  I  knew  myself  to  come  so  many  miles 
in  all  other  things ;  yea,  and  even  of  late  times,  when  I  had 
entered  into  a  more  serious  consideration  of  these  things, 
and  according  to  the  measure  of  grace  received,  searched 
the  Scriptures,  whether  they  were  so  or  not,  and  by  search- 
ing found  much  light  of  truth ;  yet  was  the  same  so  dimmed 
and  over-clouded  with  the  contradictions  of  these  men  and 
others  of  the  like  note,  that  had  not  the  truth  been  in  my 


78  THE    PILGRIMS 

heart  as  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  my  bones,  I  had  never 
broken  those  bonds  of  flesh  and  blood,  wherein  I  was  so 
strictly  tied,  but  had  suffered  the  light  of  God  to  have  been 
put  out  in  mine  own  untruthful  heart  by  other  men's 
darkness." 

This  is  large  and  manly ;  but  it  is  the  record  of  a  severe 
struggle.  Awed  and  bound  by  the  names  of  living  men 
whom  he  revered,  and  by  the  names  of  dead  men  whose 
memory  he  honored,  he  was  yet  able  to  stand  on  his  own 
feet  and  reach  and  rest  in  his  own  conclusions.  Command- 
ing as  some  of  these  names  were  which  were  cited  against 
him,  he  had  the  courage  to  say,  in  a  sentence  immediately 
preceding  the  passage  just  quoted,  "  I  neither  think  them 
so  learned  but  they  might  err;  nor  so  godly,  but  in  their 
error  they  might  reproach  the  truth  they  saw  not."  A 
wholesome  stand  this  for  any  man  to  take;  but  to  take  it 
and  hold  it  requires  a  good  deal  of  moral  fiber. 

After  the  struggle  was  over,  and  he  was  no  longer  a 
Puritan  merely,  but  a  Separatist,  Robinson  went  north. 
But  to  what  place?  Dr.  Dexter  thinks  he  went 
Became  a  to  Gainsborough  and,  in  what  "  must  have  been 
Separatist  an  impressive  scene,"  offered  himself  for  mem- 
bership in  a  body  of  disciples  who  called  them- 
selves, in  the  language  of  their  compact,  "  the  Lord's  free 
people,"  and  who  had  become  united  "  by  a  Covenant  of 
the  Lord,  into  a  Church  Estate,  in  the  fellowship  of  the 
Gospel,  to  walk  in  all  His  ways  made  known,  or  to  be  made 
known,  unto  them,  according  to  their  best  endeavors,  what- 
soever it  should  cost  them,  the  Lord  assisting  them."  On 
the  contrary,  Arber  says :  "  We  are  not  aware  of  any  evi- 
dence tending  to  prove,  in  the  slightest  degree,  that  Robin- 
son was  ever  a  member  of  Smyth's  church."  His  claim  is 
that  the  Gainsborough  church  was  not  established  until 
1606  —  the  same  year  in  which  the  Scrooby  people  formed 
their  church.  Hence  he  declares  that  "  if  Robinson  went 
north  in  1604,  he  must  have  gone  to  Scrooby."  The  differ- 
ence of  opinion  is  of  little  consequence,  since  Robinson 
surely  found  his  way  to  Scrooby,  became  fully  identified 
with  the  Scrooby  church,  and  there  began  his  pronounced 
and  influential  Separatist  career.    But  whether  it  was  with 


THE    PILGRIMS  79 

the  church  on  the  Trent,  or  the  church  on  the  Ryton,  that 
he  first  became  connected,  he  subscribed  to  the  same  cove- 
nant, and  entered  into  the  same  vows,  and  staked  all  on 
the  issue.  "  Whatsoever  it  should  cost  "  was  the  spirit  and 
pledge  in  which  he  took  the  step. 

It  is  not  clear  just  when  Robinson  came  into  the  pastor- 
ate of  the  Scrooby  church.     But  be  the  time  when  it  may 

and  the  place  where  it  may,  the  mutual  respect 
Beloved  an(j  affection  entertained  by  Robinson  and  his 

pastor  of  people  Were  very  marked.  Bradford  says : 
Scrooby  «  Such   was    the   mutual   love   and   reciprocal 

church  respect  that  this  worthy  man  had  to  his  flock, 

and  his  flock  to  him,  that  it  might  be  said 
of  them  as  it  once  was  of  the  Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius 
and  the  people  of  Rome,  that  it  was  hard  to  judge  whether 
he  delighted  more  in  having  such  a  people,  or  they  in 
having  such  a  pastor.  His  love  was  great  towards  them, 
and  his  care  was  always  bent  on  their  best  good,  both  for 
soul  and  body;  for  besides  his  singular  ability  in  divine 
things,  wherein  he  excelled,  he  was  also  very  able  to  give 
directions  in  civil  affairs,  and  to  foresee  dangers  and  in- 
conveniences ;  by  which  means  he  was  very  helpful  to  their 
outward  estates,  and  so  was  every  way  a  common  father 
unto  them." 

So  far,  however,  as  residence  and  work  at  Scrooby  are 
concerned,  it  was  only  a  very  brief  and  limited  opportunity 
which  Robinson  had  for  aiding  the  people  and  that  the 
people  had  for  receiving  benefit  from  his  presence.  The 
same  bitterness  of  intolerance  and  hate  and  the  same  in- 
genuity and  persistence  in  persecution  with  which  Separa- 
tists were  followed  in  London  and  Norwich,  and  wherever 
else  they  were  known  to  exist,  were  measured  out  to  them 
in  this  quiet  little  hamlet  of  Nottinghamshire.  It  was  at 
a  later  period  that  his  associates  in  exile  and  the  members 
of  his  flock  came  to  know  him  in  the  fulness  of  his  manly 
qualities,  in  the  tenderness  and  fidelity  of  his  ministry,  and 
in  the  patience  and  wisdom  which  fitted  him  so  admirably 
to  be  their  leader.  The  question  has  been  debated  whether 
in  the  migration  from  Scrooby  the  leadership  belonged  to 
Clyfton  or  Robinson.     The  real  question  is  not  this,  but 


80  THE    PILGRIMS 

whether  it  belonged  to  Brewster  or  Robinson.  After  the 
flight  from  England  the  question  ceases  to  be  debatable. 
The  impression  made  by  the  whole  narrative,  and  all  the 
side-lights  of  the  story,  is  that  from  the  hour  when  he 
reached  the  full  pastorate,  whether  at  Scrooby  or  Am- 
sterdam or  Leyden,  until  the  hour  of  his  lamented  death, 
Robinson  was  both  the  nominal  and  the  actual  head  of  the 
company.  This  will  become  more  and  more  evident  as  the 
story  unfolds. 


The  four  persons  considered  in  the  preceding  paragraphs 
were  the  chief  men  in  the  Scrooby  fellowship.     Unfortu- 
nately they  are  the  only  ones  of  whom  we  have 
Other  much  knowledge.     Even  in  these  instances  we 

exiles  have  seen  at  how  many  points  important  in- 

formation is  lacking.  There  were  others  — 
the  followers  of  these  leaders  and  their  associates  in  faith 
and  suffering  —  brave  men  and  true ;  but  in  regard  to  the 
most  of  them  we  know  little  or  nothing.  Dexter  names 
Richard  Jackson,  Robert  Rochester,  Francis  Jessop,  and 
Gervase  Neville,  as  members  of  the  Scrooby  company  to 
whom  "  brief  allusions  "  are  made.  These  "  brief  allu- 
sions," however,  cover  at  most  only  a  very  few  facts ;  and 
the  knowledge  to  be  gained  of  them  from  delving  in  dusty 
archives,  and  deciphering  deeds  and  certificates  and  family 
registers  and  records  of  one  sort  and  another  is  provok- 
ingly  meager.  The  large  majority  of  them  were  obscure 
people.  They  were  without  wealth,  without  learning,  and 
without  social,  political,  or  ecclesiastical  standing.  They 
would  have  lived  and  died  in  an  obscurity  so  utter  that  no 
antiquarian,  not  to  say  historian,  would  ever  have  thought 
of  seeking  to  know  so  much  about  them  as  their  names  even, 
had  they  not  identified  themselves  with  a  great  cause,  and 
by  heroic  struggles  and  fortitude  demonstrated  to  the  world 
the  inherent  nobleness  of  their  natures. 


THE    PILGRIMS  81 


XI 


Here  we  come  upon  the  secret  of  these  Scrooby  men. 
This  is  where  we  get  our  measure  of  their  real  qualities. 
It  is  not  in  things  outward,  but  in  things  in- 
The  expla-  ward9  —  ideas,  intuitions,  aspirations,  high 
nation  of  resolves.  It  cuts  no  figure  that  they  were 
these  men  farmers  —  "  plain  farmers,"  as  we  should  say. 
There  were  other  farmers  in  England,  "  plain," 
and  "  gentlemen,"  —  others  then,  and  others  before  and 
afterwards.  But  farmers  who  had  ceased  to  be  "  plain  " 
and  become  "  gentlemen  "  farmers  do  not  seem  in  virtue  of 
that  fact  to  have  counted  for  any  more  in  the  great  political 
and  moral  conflicts  of  the  age.  It  is  the  "  plain  "  farmers 
rather  than  the  other  kind  who  have  often  been  the  signifi- 
cant factors  in  hard  contests.  Was  it  not  "  plain  "  farmers 
"  embattled,"  who  "  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world," 
of  whom  Emerson  sings  ? 

The  wonder  is  often  expressed  that  men  with  so  little  learn- 
ing as  the  larger  section  of  these  people  had  should  have 
comprehended  the  issue  so  clearly  and  been  so  splendidly 
equal  to  the  emergency.  Why  wonder?  If  learning  is  so 
essential  and  so  assuring  of  right  views  and  attitudes,  why 
were  not  the  great  masters  of  learning  and  the  great  centers 
of  learning  on  the  right  side  in  the  controversies  of  those 
stormy  days  ?  The  leaders  were  educated,  and  it  was  of  all 
consequence  that  they  should  be ;  but  both  the  leaders  and 
their  followers  were  dominated  by  other  influences  than  mere 
learning. 

It  is  no  ground  of  surprise,  either,  that  men  without  social 
recognition  should  have  taken  so  bold  a  step  and  accom- 
plished so  much.  Social  recognition  would  have  been  more 
likely  to  make  them  acquiescent  and  contented  with  things 
as  they  were.  The  aristocracy  of  the  realm  came  and  went 
and  made  no  sign.  It  was  nothing  to  them  that  the  machin- 
ery of  state  and  church  was  running  badly ;  that  the  water 
was  low  in  the  stream,  that  the  bands  were  loose,  that  cog 
and  mesh  were  not  a  fit,  and  that  the  finished  products  were 
of  a  low  grade.    They  were  at  ease;  why  fret  about  such 

6 


82  THE    PILGRIMS 

trifles  as  injustice  to  the  masses,  freedom  cramped  and  hin- 
dered, manhood  crushed,  and  life  rendered  abortive? 

The  world  ought  long  ago  to  have  learned  that  it  is  pre- 
cisely from  such  people  as  these  at  Scrooby  —  people  with 
intelligent,  well-instructed,  and  unselfish  leaders,  while  they 
themselves  are  sufficiently  informed  and  have  enough  resolu- 
tion to  follow  their  leaders  —  that  such  movements  as  the 
Pilgrim  movement  may  be  expected  to  originate.  These 
men  opened  their  minds  and  hearts  to  God.  They  set  their 
consciences  to  the  key  of  the  Ten  Commandments.  They 
listened  to  the  voice  which  spoke  to  them  out  of  the  cloud. 
They  read  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  applied  its  great 
teachings  to  their  daily  lives.  They  interpreted  their  own 
instincts  and  longings  in  the  interest  of  the  rights  of  man. 
They  put  Christ  above  bishops  and  the  moral  law  above 
kings.  Their  thoughts  and  aims  and  aspirations  exalted 
them.  They  were  a  humble  body  of  yeomen ;  but  they  were 
wiser  than  James  I.  In  an  hour  that  was  big  with  fate 
they  saw  into  things  more  clearly  than  did  Parliament. 
They  had  a  keener  and  more  vital  understanding  of  the 
Scriptures  than  did  the  foremost  ecclesiastics  of  the  land. 
It  is  three  centuries  since  Scrooby ;  but  in  the  management 
of  church  affairs,  in  adequate  provision  for  public  schools, 
and  in  overcoming  class  distinctions  and  prejudices,  Eng- 
land is  not  yet  up  to  that  little  group  of  rustics  who  used 
to  meet  for  worship  in  the  old  manor  house,  and  whom  a 
foolish  and  headstrong  Stuart  "  harried  out  of  the  king- 
dom." The  fact  to  be  noted  is  not  that  these  exiles  from 
their  native  shores  were  ordinary  men,  about  equal  to  the 
average  or  a  little  above;  but  that  ordinary  men,  under 
proper  stimulation  and  guidance,  are  capable  of  great 
thoughts  and  heroic  deeds. 


V 

THE  ESCAPE  TO   HOLLAND 


Blessed  are  they  that  have  been  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake:  for 
theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Blessed  are  ye  when  men  shall  reproach 
you,  and  persecute  you,  and  say  all  manner  of  evil  against  you  falsely,  for 
my  sake.  Rejoice,  and  be  exceeding  glad :  for  great  is  your  reward  in  heaven : 
for  so  persecuted  they  the  prophets  which  were  before  you. 

Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

The  Pilgrims  separated  Church  and  State.  They  believed  in  the  right 
and  power  of  Christian  people  to  govern  themselves,  and  they  believed  this 
when,  even  in  England,  it  was  dangerous  to  breathe  such  an  idea.  They 
were  hunted  out  of  their  home-land  into  the  Dutch  Republic,  where  con- 
science was  free.  —  William  Elliot  Griffis. 

We  can  hardly  realize  a  condition  of  society  in  which  law  itself  was 
struggling  for  existence;  in  which  everybody  and  everything  was  governed 
by  the  King's  will,  and  was  subordinate  and  contributary  to  —  the  royal 
satisfaction.  —  Edward  Arber. 

Why  did  they  suffer  the  spoiling  of  their  goods,  arrest,  imprisonment, 
exile  ?  Their  only  crime  was  that,  while  they  rendered  to  Caesar  the  things 
that  were  Caesar's,  they  would  not  render  to  Caesar  the  things  that  were 
God's.  They  had  caught  from  the  Bible  the  idea  of  a  church  independent 
alike  of  the  pope  and  the  queen,  independent  of  Parliament  as  well  as  of 
prelates,  and  dependent  only  on  Christ.  It  was  their  mission  to  work  out 
and  organize  the  idea ;  and,  in  so  doing,  they  wrought  and  suffered  for  their 
posterity  in  all  ages  and  for  the  world.  —  Leonard  Bacon. 

And  that  it  cost  them  something  this  ensuing  history  will  declare. 

William  Bradford. 


THE   ESCAPE   TO   HOLLAND 

IT  is  difficult  to  picture  to  our  minds  a  condition  of  affairs 
in  any  civilized  country  in  which  a  group  of  people  like 
these  Separatists  at  Scrooby  should  not  have  been 
congratulated  on  their  exemplary  living,  solicited  to  re- 
main and  pursue  their  several  callings  without  let  or  hin- 
drance, and  surrounded  with  influences  fitted  to  promote 
their  welfare  and  happiness,  instead  of  being  forced  to 
forsake  their  homes,  abandon  scenes  and  associations  which 
were  so  sacred  to  their  hearts,  and  give  up  their  most 
cherished  worldly  prospects.  It  is  still  more  difficult  to 
persuade  ourselves  that  this  state  of  things  existed,  not 
in  Turkey,  but  in  England  —  the  home  of  our  state-build- 
ing ancestors,  and  the  fountainhead,  in  spite  of  all  the 
tyranny  and  injustice  and  persecution  which  have  stained 
the  pages  of  its  history,  of  many  of  the  noblest  conceptions 
of  justice  and  fair  play,  and  the  best  inspirations  to  liberty 
which  the  modern  world  has  known. 

But  peaceful  though  they  were,  and  diligent,  clean- 
handed, and  upright  in  character,  an  honor  to  the  sturdy 
yeomanry  of  the  land  and  an  appreciable  asset  in  the  wealth 
of  the  nation,  reverent  and  loyal  to  the  king,  and  scrupu- 
lously law-abiding  in  all  things  save  that,  like  Daniel  of  old 
and  the  apostles,  they  wished  to  worship  God  with  a  sin- 
cerity and  earnestness  which  were  offensive  to  those  of  the 
realm  who  were  in  charge  of  religious  matters,  their  lives 
were  made  intolerable  to  them.  The  authorities  demanded 
that  they  should  cease  to  obey  their  own  intelligent  and 
conscientious  convictions  in  the  concerns  of  the  soul,  and  fall 
in  with  forms  prescribed  for  them.     They  must  listen  to 


86  THE    PILGRIMS 

preachers  imposed  upon  them  by  the  state,  even  though 
these  preachers  were  often  too  ignorant  to  preach  and  too 
immoral  to  be  respected.  They  must  follow  rubrics  and 
rituals  out  of  which,  for  them  at  least,  all  vitality  had  been 
lost,  and  which  stood  for  nothing  but  superstitious  mum- 
meries, lifeless  and  void.  It  is  not  pathetic  alone,  but  an 
occasion  for  the  hottest  kind  of  righteous  indignation,  to 
think  of  the  sore  straits  to  which  these  men  and  women 
were  driven,  for  no  other  reason  than  that  they  wanted  to 
come  more  completely  under  the  power  of  the  endless  life, 
and  be  more  like  Him  who  is  the  supreme  expression  of  the 
divine  purity  and  love. 

Had  these  devout  souls  gathered  at  the  manor  house 
Sunday  after  Sunday  for  purposes  of  pleasure  and  revelry 
they  would  have  been  unmolested.  Civil  functionaries,  high 
ecclesiastics,  and  subservient  parsons  would  have  seen  noth- 
ing out  of  the  way  in  the  proceeding.  To  come  together  to 
hold  communion  with  God,  to  be  instructed  in  the  Word,  to 
find  strength  to  bear  their  burdens  and  comfort  to  soothe 
their  sorrows,  to  enter  into  a  more  intimate  fellowship  with 
their  Lord  and  to  lift  their  lives  to  higher  levels  of  faith, 
and  a  completer  comprehension  of  truth,  to  learn  how 
to  be  better  and  braver  and  more  worthy  to  be  called  the 
children  of  the  Father,  was  quite  another  affair,  and  a  stop 
must  be  put  to  it !  Hence  public  officials  were  turned  into 
spies  and  charged  to  be  alert  and  unsparing  in  doing  the 
bidding  of  bishop  and  crown.  Culprits  like  these  must  be 
run  down  and  punished  to  the  limit.  Nonconformists  must 
be  browbeaten  into  conformity,  or  suffer  the  consequences. 
Laws  had  been  made  to  stifle  soul-freedom ;  and  these  laws 
must  be  enforced.  There  was  no  relief,  save  in  flight,  and 
even  against  flight  bars  the  most  cruel  had  been  erected. 


THE   PILGRIMS  87 


Bradford  has  a  number  of  passages  in  which  he  sets 
forth,  after  his  graphic  fashion,  the  kind  of  treatment  which 
was  accorded  to  persons  who  had  found  their 
How  the  wav  int0  the  truth  of  Christ  and  were  trying 
Scrooby  jn  their  lives  and  worship  to  be  conformed  to 
Noncon-  yfl  wilL 

formists  The  first  one  is  general  and  has  application 

were  to  men  and  women  of  this  manner  of  living  and 

treated  doing  wherever  they  might  be  discovered. 

"When  as  by  the  travail  and  diligence  of 
some  godly  and  zealous  preachers,  and  God's  blessing  on 
their  labors,  as  in  other  places  of  the  land,  so  in  the  north 
parts,  many  became  enlightened  by  the  word  of  God,  and 
had  their  ignorance  and  sins  discovered  unto  them,  and  be- 
gan by  His  grace  to  reform  their  lives,  and  make  conscience 
of  their  ways,  the  word  of  God  was  no  sooner  manifest  in 
them,  but  presently  they  were  scoffed  and  scorned  by  the 
profane  multitude,  and  the  ministers  urged  with  the  yoke 
of  subscription,  or  else  must  be  silenced ;  and  the  poor  peo- 
ple were  so  vexed  with  apparators,  pursuants,  and  the 
commissarie  courts,  as  truly  their  affliction  was  not  small; 
which,  notwithstanding,  they  bore  sundry  years  with  much 
patience,  till  they  were  occasioned  (by  the  continuance  and 
increase  of  their  troubles  and  other  means  which  the  Lord 
raised  up  in  those  days)  to  see  further  into  things  by  the 
light  of  the  Word  of  God." 

For  years,  and  in  all  parts  of  the  kingdom  where  they 
appeared,  there  was  no  liberty  and  no  peace  for  those  who 
sought  to  discard  the  "  base  and  beggarly  ceremonies  " 
which  were  imposed  upon  them  by  the  ecclesiastical  authori- 
ties, and  who  refused  to  submit  to  "  the  lordly  and  tyrannous 
power  of  the  prelates,"  as  "  unlawful  and  antichristian." 

The  passage  which  is  to  follow  has  more  particular  refer- 
ence to  the  state  of  affairs  at  Scrooby,  after  the  brethren 
had  been  associated  for  a  twelvemonth,  and  were  on  the  eve 
of  making  their  desperate  venture  to  get  away. 

"  But  after  these  things  they  could  not  long  continue  in 


88  THE    PILGRIMS 

any  peaceable  condition;  but  were  hunted  and  persecuted 
on  every  side,  so  as  their  former  afflictions  were  but  as  flea- 
bitings  in  comparison  of  these  which  were  come  upon  them. 
For  some  were  taken  and  clapped  up  in  prison,  others  had 
their  houses  beset  and  watched  night  and  day,  and  hardly 
escaped  their  hands;  and  the  most  were  fain  to  fly  and 
leave  their  houses  and  habitations,  and  the  means  of  their 
livelihood.  Yet  these  and  many  other  sharper  things  which 
afterwards  befell  them,  were  no  other  than  they  looked  for, 
and  therefore  were  the  better  prepared  to  bear  them  by  the 
assistance  of  God's  grace  and  Spirit.  Yet  seeing  themselves 
thus  molested,  and  that  there  was  no  hope  of  their  continu- 
ance there,  by  a  joint  counsel  they  resolved  to  go  into  the 
Low  Countries,  where  they  heard  was  freedom  of  religion  for 
all  men ;  as  also  how  sundry  from  London,  and  other  parts 
of  the  land,  had  been  exiled  and  persecuted  for  the  same 
cause,  and  were  gone  thither,  and  lived  at  Amsterdam  and 
in  other  places  of  the  land.  So  after  they  had  continued 
together  about  a  year,  and  kept  their  meetings  every  Sab- 
bath in  one  place  or  the  other,  exercising  the  worship  of 
God  amongst  themselves,  notwithstanding  all  the  diligence 
and  malice  of  their  adversaries,  they  seeing  they  could  no 
longer  continue  in  that  condition,  they  resolved  to  get  over 
into  Holland  as  they  could,  which  was  in  the  year  1607  and 
1608." 

II 

This  resolution  cost  these  about-to-be  exiles  many  a 
sharp  and  bitter  pang.     It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the 

Puritans,  so  Mather  tells  us,  who  arrived  in 
Resolution  Salem  in  1629,  on  leaving  the  homes  in  which 
to  leave  they  had  been  nourished  and  all  the  associa- 
and  hin-  tions  of  their  former  years,  so  far  forgot  their 
drancesmet   sufferings    and    persecutions    that    they    were 

ready  to  exclaim,  not,  "  Farewell  Babylon ! 
Farewell  Rome!"  but  "Farewell,  dear  England!"  To 
these  Pilgrims  who  were  the  forerunners  of  the  Puritans 
in  their  flight  from  the  home-land  to  America,  England, 
we  may  be  sure,  was  "  dear  "  England.     "  To  leave  their 


THE    PILGRIMS  89 

native  soil  and  country,  their  lands  and  livings,  and  all 
their  friends  and  f amiliar  acquaintance,"  was  "  much ;  " 
and  by  many  it  was  thought  to  be  "  marvelous."  But  there 
were  embarrassments  far  more  practical  than  any  spring- 
ing from  mere  sentiment.  In  going  into  Holland  they 
were  going  into  a  country  of  which  they  were  all  —  with  the 
exception  of  Brewster  —  totally  ignorant,  save  what  had 
come  to  them  through  hearsay.  They  must  learn  a  new 
language,  get  their  living  they  knew  not  how,  pay  far 
more  than  they  had  been  accustomed  to  do  for  whatever  they 
bought,  and  expose  themselves  to  all  the  miseries  of  war. 
No  wonder  "  many  thought "  this  "  an  adventure  almost 
desperate,  a  case  intolerable,  and  a  misery  worse  than 
death."  "  But  these  things  did  not  dismay  them ;  though 
they  did  sometimes  trouble  them ;  for  their  desires  were  set 
on  the  ways  of  God,  and  to  enjoy  his  ordinances;  but 
they  rested  on  His  providence,  and  knew  whom  they  had 
believed." 

It  required  two  systematic  attempts,  and  then  a  good  deal 
of  effort  of  the  promiscuous  sort,  to  accomplish  the  final 
transfer  of  the  Scrooby  church  from  exposure  to  the  cruel 
storms  of  England  to  the  kindly  shelter  of  Holland.  It 
was  a  strange  situation.  The  irony  of  it  was  that  the  Dis- 
senters and  Separatists,  though  an  intelligent  and  devout 
and  exceptionally  worthy  people,  were  allowed  neither  to  stay 
nor  to  go  in  peace.  Or  to  state  it  in  the  exact  and  pathetic 
language  of  Bradford :  "  Though  they  could  not  stay,  yet 
were  they  not  suffered  to  go :  but  the  ports  and  havens  were 
shut  against  them,  so  as  they  were  fain  to  seek  secret  means 
of  conveyance,  and  to  bribe  and  fee  the  mariners,  and  give 
extraordinary  rates  for  their  passages."  For  there  was  a 
law  of  England  that  no  one  could  go  out  of  the  country 
without  license  from  the  king.  There  was  also  a  law  — 
from  1593  to  1598,  a  specific  statute,  after  that  a  purpose 
in  influential  and  official  circles  quite  as  potent  as  written 
enactments  —  to  the  effect  that  incorrigible  Nonconform- 
ists must  leave  the  realm.  The  alternatives  were  sub- 
mission to  all  ecclesiastical  requirements  or  quitting  the 
kingdom.  At  the  same  time  here  was  this  other  law  for- 
bidding going  abroad  without  permission  from  the  king. 


90  THE    PILGRIMS 

The  first  plan  of  getting  away  was  for  a  large  company 
of  them  to  embark  from  old  Boston,  a  seaport  town,  on  the 
Witham,  fifty  or  sixty  miles  distant.  This  was  in  the  au- 
tumn —  probably  October  —  of  1607.  A  suitable  ship  was 
chartered,  agreement  was  made  with  the  master  to  be  ready 
on  an  appointed  day,  and  preparations  went  on  in  accord- 
ance with  this  arrangement.  The  Idle,  one  of  the  two 
rivers  near  the  manor  house,  was  navigable  for  a  part  of 
the  way ;  and  it  is  quite  likely  that  the  women,  children,  and 
luggage  were  sent  by  water  as  far  as  Gainsborough.  At 
any  rate,  this  is  Arber's  conjecture.  The  men,  or  so  many 
as  were  not  needed  to  accompany  the  boat  down  the  Idle, 
might  easily  reach  their  destination  on  foot.  All  went  as 
planned  with  the  exiles.  But  the  vessel  was  not  at  hand 
at  the  appointed  date.  The  party  had  to  wait  —  with  what 
anxiety  it  is  easy  to  imagine  —  for  a  long  time,  and  to  be 
at  heavy  extra  expense  in  consequence  of  waiting.  At  length 
the  captain  appeared ;  under  cover  of  darkness  the  would-be 
emigrants  got  themselves  and  their  stuff  on  board  the  ship ; 
and  then,  when  morning  broke  and  they  thought  the  way 
clear  for  the  successful  carrying  out  of  their  project,  they 
were  all  betrayed  by  the  miserable  scoundrel  with  whom  they 
had  conducted  their  negotiations  and  whom  they  trusted. 

It  would  be  an  injustice  to  the  reader,  who  may  not  have 
ready  access  to  Bradford's  book,  not  to  reproduce  his  ac- 
count of  this  affair:  "But  when  he  had  them  and  their 
goods  aboard,  he  betrayed  them,  having  beforehand  corn- 
plotted  with  the  searchers  and  other  officers  to  do  so ;  who 
took  them,  and  put  them  into  open  boats,  and  there  rifled 
and  ransacked  them,  searching  them  to  their  shirts  for 
money,  yea,  even  the  women  further  than  became  modesty : 
and  then  carried  them  back  into  the  town,  and  made  them  a 
spectacle  and  wonder  to  the  multitude,  which  came  flocking 
on  all  sides  to  behold  them.  Being  thus  first,  by  the  catch- 
pole  officers,  rifled  and  stripped  of  their  money,  books,  and 
much  other  goods,  they  were  presented  to  the  magistrates, 
and  messengers  were  sent  to  inform  the  lords  of  the  Council 
of  them,  and  so  they  were  committed  to  ward.  Indeed  the 
magistrates  used  them  courteously,  and  showed  them  what 
favor  they  could,  but  could  not  deliver  them,  till  order  came 


THE    PILGRIMS  91 

from  the  Council-table.  But  the  issue  was  that  after  a 
month's  imprisonment,  the  greatest  part  were  dismissed,  and 
sent  to  the  places  from  whence  they  came ;  but  seven  of  the 
principal  were  still  kept  in  prison,  and  bound  over  to  the 
Assizes." 

Who  these  "seven"  were  is  not  known,  save  that  Brewster 
was  one,  and  that  Robinson  and  Bradford  were  likely  to 
have  been  two  others.  But  whoever  they  were,  these  "seven" 
were  worthy  to  be  enrolled  along  with  another  "  seven  "  of 
whom  we  read  in  the  Book  of  Acts,  who  were  "  men  of  good 
report,  full  of  the  Spirit  and  of  wisdom." 

To  have  been  baffled  and  turned  back  in  this  way  must 
have  been  a  severe  disappointment  to  these  people,  and  their 
pecuniary  loss  must  have  been  great ;  but  they  remained  as 
trustful  in  God,  and  as  brave  and  determined  as  ever. 

In  the  spring  —  April,  it  is  thought  —  of  the  following 
year,  1608,  a  second  effort  was  made  to  escape  from  the 
trials  and  persecutions  to  which  Separatists  were  exposed 
in  their  own  home-land.  This  time  another  program  was 
adopted.  Instead  of  trying  to  work  out  by  way  of  Boston 
and  the  mouth  of  the  Witham,  the  leaders  seem  to  have  con- 
cluded that  there  was  more  chance  of  success  by  going  in  the 
direction  of  Hull  and  the  Humber.  Women  and  children, 
with  the  goods,  were  to  be  placed,  as  before,  on  some  sort  of 
transportation  craft,  and  floated  down  the  Idle,  as  far  as 
Gainsborough,  to  the  Trent;  there  they  were  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  a  small  bark,  but  suitable  for  the  purpose,  and 
taken  down  the  Trent  to  its  confluence  with  the  Humber, 
thirty  miles  away,  and  then  down  the  Humber  and  along 
the  coast  to  a  point  settled  upon,  and  now  believed  to  be  the 
haven  of  East  Halton  Skitter.  The  men  of  the  party  were 
to  walk,  and  to  meet  the  women  and  children  at  the  time 
and  place  designated. 

This  apparently  was  the  scheme.  The  attempt  to  execute 
it  involved  these  earnest  souls  in  a  fresh  disaster.  The  bar- 
gain was  made  with  a  Dutch  master  of  Zealand,  found  in 
the  port  of  Hull,  who  owned  the  ship  he  sailed,  and  who 
gave  satisfactory  assurances  that  he  would  keep  his  word 
and  meet  their  expectations.  We  have  seen  what  the  plan 
was.    "  But,"  as  Bradford  tells  us,  "  it  so  fell  out,  that  they 


92  THE    PILGRIMS 

were  there  a  day  before  the  ship  came,  and  the  sea  being 
rough,  and  the  women  very  sick,  prevailed  with  the  seamen 
to  put  into  a  creek  hard  by,  where  they  lay  on  the  ground 
at  low  water.  The  next  morning  the  ship  came,  but  they 
were  fast  and  could  not  stir  until  about  noon.  In  the  mean- 
time, the  ship  master,  perceiving  how  the  matter  was,  sent 
his  boat  to  be  getting  the  men  aboard  whom  he  saw  ready, 
walking  about  the  shore.  But  after  the  first  boat  full  was 
got  aboard,  and  she  was  ready  to  go  for  more,  the  master 
espied  a  great  company,  both  horse  and  foot,  with  bills  and 
guns  and  other  weapons ;  for  the  country  was  raised  to  take 
them.  The  Dutchman  seeing  that,  swore  his  country's  oath 
—  '  sacremente  '  —  and  having  the  wind  fair,  weighed 
anchor,  hoist  sails,  and  away."  Thus  were  the  hopes  of 
these  smitten  Pilgrims  blasted  once  more,  and  their  well- 
wrought  plans  brought  to  naught. 

Immediately  the  plight  of  both  parties  —  those  in  the 
vessel  and  those  on  shore  —  became  pitiable  in  the  extreme. 
The  men  were  taken  out  to  sea ;  but  instead  of  a  quick  and 
safe  voyage  into  port,  the  ship  ran  into  a  terrific  storm. 
One  who  has  had  any  experience  of  rough  weather  on  the 
German  Ocean  can  well  understand  what  that  must  have 
meant.  In  a  passage  in  an  excellent  steamer,  only  a  few 
years  since,  from  Newcastle  to  Bergen,  when  the  winds  were 
only  moderately  severe,  and  the  waves  were  far  from  being 
mountain  high,  the  captain  was  heard  to  exclaim  at  dinner : 
"  Well,  this  is  a  fine  show !  Eighty  on  board,  and  only  five 
at  the  table !  "  Had  he  delayed  his  remark  for  about  one 
minute,  the  number  he  named  would  have  been  not  five,  but 
four.  The  storm  into  which  the  ship  which  bore  so  many  of 
the  men  of  the  Pilgrim  company  ran  lasted  for  seven  days, 
and  it  took  fourteen  days  to  reach  land.  During  half  this 
time,  or  the  days  upon  which  the  storm  was  upon  them, 
"  They  neither  saw  sun,  moon,  nor  stars,  and  were  driven 
near  the  coast  of  Norway;  the  mariners  themselves  often 
despairing  of  life ;  and  once  with  shrieks  and  cries  gave  over 
all,  as  if  the  ship  had  been  foundered  in  the  sea,  and  then 
sinking  without  recovery."  Bradford  himself,  to  whom  the 
world  is  indebted  for  the  facts,  was  on  board  of  this  ship, 
and  in  those  days  and  nights  of  fearful  hardship  and  peril, 


THE   PILGRIMS  93 

when  he  and  others  of  like  faith  were  driven  to  their  knees 
in  prayer,  he  must  often  have  thought  of  Paul  and  his  ex- 
periences of  shipwreck  and  deliverance  so  long  ago  in  the 
tumultuous  waters  of  the  angry  Mediterranean. 

But  if  those  who  were  borne  out  to  sea  were  forced  to  en- 
counter darkness  and  the  fierce  assaults  of  swollen  waves, 
those  who  remained  behind  fared  but  little  better.  The 
"  great  company  of  both  horse  and  foot,  with  bills  and  guns 
and  other  weapons,"  whom  the  master  of  the  ship  saw  bear- 
ing down  on  them,  soon  had  the  most  of  these  surprised 
exiles  in  their  grasp.  Some  of  the  men  —  those  in  all  prob- 
ability who  knew  it  would  be  fatal  for  them  to  be  caught  — 
made  good  their  escape ;  but  others  of  them,  with  the  women 
and  children,  were  apprehended.  Once  more  it  shall  be  left 
to  Bradford  to  tell  the  tale :  "  Pitiful  it  was  to  see  the  heavy 
case  of  these  poor  women  in  this  distress :  what  weeping  and 
crying  on  every  side,  some  for  their  husbands  that  were 
carried  away  in  the  ship,  others  not  knowing  what  should 
become  of  them  and  their  little  ones ;  others  again  melted 
in  tears,  seeing  their  poor  little  ones  hanging  about  them, 
crying  for  fear,  and  quaking  with  cold.  Being  thus  appre- 
hended, they  were  hurried  from  one  place  to  another,  and 
from  one  justice  to  another,  till  in  the  end  they  knew  not 
what  to  do  with  them ;  for  to  imprison  so  many  women  and 
innocent  children  for  no  other  cause  but  that  they  must  go 
with  their  husbands,  seemed  to  be  unreasonable  and  all 
would  cry  out  upon  them;  and  to  send  them  home  again 
was  as  difficult,  for  they  alleged,  as  the  truth  was,  that 
they  had  no  homes  to  go  to,  for  they  had  either  sold,  or 
otherwise  disposed  of  their  homes  and  livings.  To  be  short, 
after  they  had  been  thus  turmoiled  a  good  while,  and  con- 
veyed from  one  constable  to  another,  they  were  glad  to  be 
rid  of  them  in  the  end  on  any  terms;  for  all  were  wearied 
and  tired  of  them.  Though  in  the  meantime  they  —  poor 
souls  —  endured  misery  enough ;  and  thus  in  the  end  neces- 
sity forced  a  way  for  them." 


94  THE    PILGRIMS 


III 


This  was  the  last  attempt  made  by  the  Pilgrims  to  cross 
over  from  England  to  Holland  in  a  body.  A  few  of  the 
men,  after  their  perilous  voyage  of  fourteen 
Effort  to  days,  were  there  already.  It  was  deemed  wiser 
reach  Hoi-  for  the  others  to  follow  them  in  the  same  fashion 
land  sue-  m  wnich  they  had  been  wont  to  go  to  their 
cessful  gatherings    in    the    manor    house  —  not    in 

groups,  but  one  by  one,  or  by  twos  and  threes. 
In  this  way  they  would  escape  observation  and  accomplish 
their  purpose.  So  it  was.  "  And  in  the  end,  notwithstand- 
ing all  the  storms  of  opposition,  they  all  got  over  at  length, 
some  at  one  time  and  some  at  another,  and  some  in  one 
place  and  some  in  another,  and  met  together  again  ac- 
cording to  their  desires,  with  no  small  rejoicing." 

A  fresh  reading  in  its  details  of  the  exodus  of  the  Pil- 
grims from  England  to  Holland  only  serves  to  deepen  the 
surprise  and  indignation  which  was  expressed  in  the  open- 
ing words  of  this  chapter.  There  are  no  words  hot  and 
sharp  enough  to  express  the  folly  and  wickedness  of  ex- 
pelling such  a  people  from  the  land.  But  how  sublime  the 
faith,  how  superb  the  courage,  how  lofty  and  complete  the 
devotion  which  would  lead  men  and  women  to  endure  all 
these  hardships  and  make  all  these  sacrifices,  and  yet  not 
flinch,  but  go  straight  on  in  testimony  of  their  regard  for 
conscience  and  their  loyalty  to  God!  So  long  as  pain 
excites  pity  in  the  human  breast,  and  tyranny  arouses  pro- 
test and  resistance,  and  exhibitions  of  resolute  courage  and 
heroic  self-sacrifice  stir  enthusiasm,  what  these  men  and 
women  did  in  turning  their  backs  on  the  homes  of  their 
childhood,  and  the  land  they  cherished,  and  giving  up  so 
large  a  part  of  their  possessions  and  escaping  across  the 
sea  to  a  foreign  country,  will  be  found  worthy  of  the  con- 
stant and  everlasting  remembrance  of  a  grateful  and  rev- 
erent posterity.  Robinson  has  his  memorial  in  the  church 
at  Gainsborough  and  the  tablet  at  Leyden.  Congrega- 
tionalists  in  Great  Britain  and  America  ought  to  unite  in 
erecting  a  suitable  monument  to  the  exiles  at  Scrooby. 


VI 

EXPERIENCES   AT   AMSTERDAM 


The  splendid  empire  of  Charles  the  Fifth  was  erected  upon  the  grave 
of  liberty.  It  is  a  consolation  to  those  who  have  hope  in  humanity  to  watch, 
under  the  reign  of  his  successor,  the  gradual  but  triumphant  resurrection 
of  the  spirit  over  which  the  sepulchre  had  so  long  been  sealed.  From  the 
handbreadth  of  territory  called  the  province  of  Holland  rises  a  power  which 
wages  eighty  years'  warfare  with  the  most  potent  empire  upon  earth,  and 
which,  during  the  progress  of  the  struggle,  becoming  itself  a  mighty  state  — 
finally  dictates  its  decrees  to  the  Empire  of  Charles. 

John  Lothbop  Motley. 

This  small  territory,  invaded  first  by  different  tribes  of  Germanic  races, 
subdued  by  the  Romans  and  by  the  Franks,  devastated  by  the  Danes  and  the 
Normans,  and  wasted  for  centuries  by  terrible  civil  wars  —  preserved  its 
civil  freedom  and  liberty  of  conscience  —  against  the  formidable  monarchy 
of  Philip  II  and  founded  a  republic  which  became  the  ark  of  salvation  for 
the  freedom  of  all  peoples.  —  Edmondo  De  Amicis. 

Holland  was  the  anvil  upon  which  religious  and  civil  liberty  was  beaten 
out  in  Europe  at  a  time  when  the  clang  was  scarcely  heard  anywhere  else. 
We  can  never  forget  our  historical  debt  to  that  Country  and  to  these  people. 
Puritan,  Independent,  Huguenot,  whoever  he  may  be,  forced  to  flee  for  con- 
science's sake,  will  not  forget  that  in  the  Netherlands  there  was  found  in  his 
time  of  need  the  asylum  where  conscience,  property  and  person  might  be 
secure.  —  Thomas  F.  Bayard. 

The  Dutch  were  the  first  to  permit,  and  to  acknowledge  religious  tolera- 
tion. —  J.  E.  T.  Rogers. 


VI 

EXPERIENCES  AT  AMSTERDAM 

HOLLAND  was  the  only  country  to  which  the  Pil- 
grims in  their  sore  straits  of  persecution  could  flee. 
It  was  the  only  country  near  enough  to  be  easily 
accessible ;  and  it  was  the  only  country  which  was  open  to 
their  approach.  They  were  less  than  fifty  miles  from  the 
coast,  and  when  once  on  the  shore  nothing  but  the  North 
Sea  separated  them  from  a  people  who  had  fought  out  the 
fight  of  freedom,  and  were  living  in  the  enjoyment  of  civil 
and  religious  liberty.  Under  the  Dutch  flag,  as  has  been 
said  before,  one  might  think  his  own  thoughts,  utter  his 
own  opinions,  or  do  this  more  freely  than  in  any  other  of 
the  leading  nations,  and  worship  God  in  any  way,  provided 
he  kept  within  proper  ethical  limits,  which  met  the  demands 
of  his  own  reason  and  moral  sense. 

To  men  whose  efforts  to  reform  their  lives  and  put  con- 
science into  their  conduct,  and  shape  their  characters  ac- 
cording to  the  standards  of  the  Master,  exposed  them  to 
the  scoffs  and  scorn  of  the  "  profane  multitude,"  a  people 
with  such  a  spirit  and  a  land  with  such  laws  must  have 
made  a  strong  appeal.  Still  stronger  must  have  been  the 
appeal  when  the  attempts  of  these  same  men  to  get  together 
for  the  study  of  the  Word,  and  for  mutual  edification  in 
worship  rendered  them  obnoxious  to  enactments  of  Parlia- 
ment and  liable  to  arrest  and  imprisonment  by  "  apparators 
and  pursuants  and  the  commissarie  courts."  When  the 
stress  of  necessity  was  upon  them,  it  was  only  natural  that 
this  little  company  of  ill-used  and  persecuted  disciples  of 
our  Lord  should  seek  the  shelter  of  a  state  in  which  the 
emphasis  of  legislation  was  placed  so  largely  on  the  civil 
and  religious  rights  of  the  individual.  Holland  was  at  once 
a  refuge  for  the  oppressed  and  a  school  of  instruction  for 
those  who  would  be  experts  in  the  practise  of  freedom.    The 

7 


98  THE    PILGRIMS 

victims  of  injustice  and  intolerance,  whether  in  Catholic 
France  or  Protestant  England,  found  here  the  opportunity 
which  they  sought  for  unmolested  worship.  Descendants 
of  the  Pilgrims  and  citizens  of  our  Republic  may  well  hold 
the  Dutch  in  most  grateful  remembrance. 


Why  the  exiles,  driven  from  their  native  land,  went 
to  Holland  has  just  been  stated.  But  why 
Reasons  for  fofi  they  choose  to  settle  at  Amsterdam 
going  to  m  preference  to  any  other  town  or  city 
Amster-  which  they  might  have  selected?  There  were 
dam  several  reasons  for  this  choice,  and  all  of  these 

combined  easily  determined  their  action. 

Amsterdam,  in  all  probability,  was  better  known  to  the 
Pilgrims  than  any  other  city  of  Holland.  It  had  been  a 
city  of  growing  importance  for  more  than 
Amster-  three  hundred  and  fifty  years.  It  was  admitted 
dam  well  t0  membership  in  the  United  Provinces  in  1578. 
known  Soon  after  this  it  became  the  foremost  com- 

mercial center  of  Europe.  For  upwards  of  a 
century  it  continued  to  hold  this  leading  position.  News 
traveled  slowly  in  those  days,  and  knowledge  of  what  was 
going  on  in  the  world  was  limited;  but  Brewster  and  the 
others  who  were  at  the  front  in  this  band  of  exiles  were 
well  informed  concerning  the  wonderful  metropolis  on  the 
Amstel. 

Amsterdam,  at  the  time  when  the  Scrooby  Separatists 
were  obliged  to  seek  shelter  in  a  foreign  land  from  the  fierce 
storm  of  persecution  which  had  broken  upon 
Amster-  them  in  the  home-land,  was  conspicuous  for  its 

dam  was  hospitality  to  men  of  all  creeds  and  nation ali- 
tolerant  ties.  The  toleration  for  which  Holland  stood 
was  here  exemplified  in  its  most  advanced 
stages.  Commerce  and  trade  had  quickened  the  intelligence 
of  the  people,  widened  their  interests  and  sympathies,  and 
made  them  in  all  best  senses  more  liberal.  Intercourse  with 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  had  given  them  a  keener 
appreciation  of  soul-liberty  as  well  as  civil  liberty.    There 


THE    PILGRIMS  99 

was  an  element  of  business  shrewdness  in  it.  Merchants 
and  manufacturers  had  found  it  to  their  pecuniary  advan- 
tage to  let  industrious,  God-fearing  workmen  come  within 
their  borders.  It  was  not  all  selfishness,  however.  The 
spirit  of  a  wise  catholicity  and  a  broad  statesmanship  was 
behind  the  policy  and  dictated  it.  One  of  the  long-honored 
officials  of  the  city,  so  Dexter  tells  us,  took  the  ground  that 
"  no  magistrate  has  authority  in  matters  of  faith,"  and 
insisted  that  "  the  wisest  course  would  be  '  to  disturb  no 
man  on  account  of  his  conscience.' "  This  was  asserted  to 
be  an  "  ancient  custom  "  of  the  city.  Dear  old  Andrew 
Marvell,  who  thought  this  wide  religious  toleration  a  fine 
theme  for  satire,  was  paying  a  higher  tribute  than  he  knew 
when  he  wrote: 

"Hence  Amsterdam,  Turk-Christian-Pagan-Jew, 
Staple  of  sects,  and  mint  of  schism  grew; 
That  bank  of  conscience,  where  not  one  so  strange 
Opinion  but  finds  credit,  and  exchange." 

It  is  no  wonder  that  the  exiles  sought  the  shelter  of  a  com- 
munity so  eminently  hospitable  to  free  thought. 

II 

Amsterdam,  being  a  city  of  much  wealth  and  of  wide 
and  increasing  business  activities,  would  be  likely  to  fur- 
nish better  chances  for  earning  a  living  than 
Amster-  anv  other  place  to  which  they  might  go.  They 
dam  held  were  fleeing  to  a  foreign  land,  and  were  to 
out  promise  cast  their  lot  among  strangers.  No  one  of  the 
of  a  liveli-  company  was  rich.  The  most  of  them  were 
hood  poor.    All  of  them,  no  doubt,  had  made  sacri- 

fices in  the  sale  of  their  properties,  while  many 
of  them  must  have  been  despoiled  of  no  small  portion  of 
their  earthly  goods  by  the  officials  who  were  "  harrying  " 
them  out  of  the  kingdom.  They  could  not  afford  to  lie  idle, 
and  they  had  no  disposition  to  do  so.  To  become  objects 
of  charity  would  have  been  an  offense  to  their  self-respect. 
They  were  without  the  capital  and  the  necessary  experience 
to  enter  into  successful  competition  with  those  who  were 
well  established  in  business.     Necessity  was  upon  them  to 


100  THE    PILGRIMS 

do  something.  With  their  own  hands  they  must  secure 
shelter,  food,  and  clothing.  It  was  wise  to  pitch  their  tents 
where  opportunities  to  meet  their  pressing  needs  were  most 
abundant.  This  is  what  they  did.  No  other  place  was  so 
promising. 

in 

A  further  attraction  of  Amsterdam,  we  must  believe,  was 
the  considerable  number  of  English-speaking  people  who 
were  already  on  the  ground.  The  facts  just 
More  recited  —  the   accessibility    of   the   place,   the 

English-  wjde  reputation  it  enjoyed  for  hospitality  to 
speaking  an  faiths,  and  the  exceptional  facilities  it 
people  al-  afforded  for  earning  a  livelihood  —  had  been 
ready  in  controlling  influences  in  determining  the  choice 
Amsterdam  0f  this  city  as  the  refuge  to  which  persecuted 
Englishmen  should  escape.  At  an  earlier 
period  it  had  been  Antwerp  and  other  continental  towns 
to  which  men,  hunted  and  bruised  for  the  opinions  they 
held,  hastened  for  safety.  In  the  more  recent  years  it  had 
been  this  wide-awake  and  tolerant  Amsterdam.  Not  a  few 
of  the  choice  subjects  of  Elizabeth  and  James  within  the 
last  decade  and  a  half  had  crossed  the  German  Ocean  and 
found  here  the  precious  freedom  for  which  they  longed  and 
prayed. 

The  presence  of  these  earlier  comers  who  held  the  same 
views  and  cherished  the  same  aims,  who  had  passed  through 
the  same  trying  experiences  and  paid  the  same  bitter  cost 
for  their  liberty,  and  who  spoke  the  same  mother  tongue, 
added  to  the  considerations  already  named,  would  be  an 
argument  of  much  weight  in  the  minds  of  the  Scrooby  exiles 
for  settling  down  in  this  renowned  mart  of  trade.  In  tak- 
ing up  life  in  the  midst  of  a  people  of  "  strange  and  uncouth 
language,"  and  of  different  "  manners  and  customs,"  and 
of  "  fashions  and  attires  "  to  which  they  were  not  used, 
though  "  these  were  not  the  things  they  much  looked  on," 
it  must  have  been  a  comforting  thought  that  there  were 
others  beside  the  members  of  their  own  immediate  party 
with    whom   they   could    hold    familiar    intercourse,    and 


THE  LITTLE  STREET  OF  THE  BROWNISTS,  AMSTERDAM 


IN  AMSTERDAM 


THE    PILGRIMS  101 

through  whom  —  some  of  them  having  been  long  enough 
in  the  country  to  learn  its  speech  —  they  might  talk  to 
the  native-born  of  the  land  and  both  understand  and  be 
understood. 

As  has  just  been  intimated,  there  was  a  pretty  large  con- 
tingent of  English-speaking  people,  who  had  been  driven 
from  their  homes  for  conscience'  sake,  at  this  time  in  Am- 
sterdam. The  movement  in  this  direction  had  been  going 
on  for  a  dozen  years  or  more.  In  1595  a  section  of  Francis 
Johnson's  church  at  Southwark  had  found  its  way  from 
London  to  this  city.  It  took  two  years  to  accomplish  the 
journey,  for  the  start  was  made  in  1593.  The  members 
of  this  advance  detachment  were  poor.  They  set  out  from 
prisons,  though  they  had  been  locked  up,  not  for  their 
crimes,  but  for  their  faith  and  their  way  of  expressing  it. 
The  doors  of  confinement  were  opened  to  them  on  condition 
that  they  would  leave  the  realm.  Their  first  attempt  at 
settlement  after  crossing  the  North  Sea  was  at  Campen. 
From  there  they  went  to  Naarden.  In  both  towns  the  local 
magistrates  had  to  render  them  pecuniary  assistance.  At 
length  the  pioneer  contingent  reached  Amsterdam.  In 
course  of  time  the  pastor,  released  from  prison  and  ban- 
ished for  life,  joined  those  of  his  flock  who  had  reached  the 
city  before  him. 

IV 

After  this  manner  a  smitten  and  exiled  company  of 
believers  was  brought  together  in  this  foreign  land.  With 
Johnson  still  its  pastor,  and  Ainsworth,  who  had  been 
serving  as  pastor  until  Johnson  arrived,  chosen  to  be  its 
teacher,  it  kept  up  its  continuity  for  years  and  passed  into 
history  as  the  "  Ancient  Church."  At  length  this  Amster- 
dam church  disappeared.  But  it  is  an  interesting  fact 
that  the  section  of  the  original  church  in  London  which 
remained  on  the  ground,  though  scattered  and  peeled,  be- 
came the  nucleus  of  a  new  church  which  persists  unto  this 
day.  They  were  "  the  hidden  ones  who  had  maintained 
their  fidelity  to  the  cause  through  years  of  persecution." 
They  were  "  what  remained  of  that  martyr  church  which, 


102  THE    PILGRIMS 

after  giving  Greenwood,  Barrowe,  and  Penry  to  the  gal- 
lows, had  been  driven  into  exile."  Henry  Jacob  —  a  man 
who  had  passed  through  many  inward  and  outward  con- 
flicts in  coming  to  the  conviction  that  he  ought  to  be  a 
Separatist  —  gathered  this  dispersed  people  and  others 
along  with  them  together  and  became  their  pastor.  It  is 
known  to-day  as  the  church  of  the  "Pilgrim  Fathers." 

Some  time  in  1606,  or  about  a  couple  of  years  before  the 
Scrooby  exodus  occurred,  John  Smyth  led  the  major  part 
of  the  Gainsborough  Separatists  over  to  Amsterdam. 
These  were  well  known  to  the  more  recent  comers.  They 
had  been  their  near  neighbors  and  associates  in  worship. 
It  must  have  been  good  to  meet  them  once  more  and  talk 
over  their  common  experiences  and  hopes. 


With  so  many  things  apparently  in  their  favor  and  to 
their  liking  in  the  stirring  and  tolerant  city  to  which  they 
had  migrated,  why  did  the  Pilgrims  think  it 
Why  the  wiser  to  leave  Amsterdam  and  go  to  Ley  den  ? 
Pilgrims  With  old  friends  about  them,  with  fellow-suf- 
left  Am-  ferers  for  associates,  with  full  liberty  to  wor- 
sterdam  snip  q0(j  as  their  own  consciences,  enlightened 

by  the  Scriptures  and  quickened  by  the  Spirit, 
directed,  and  with  ample  chances  for  self-support,  what 
more  could  they  want?  Were  they  getting  restless?  Were 
the  excitements  of  a  fresh  removal  necessary  to  their  hap- 
piness? Far  from  it.  These  men  were  impelled  by  two 
good  and  sufficient  motives  to  the  step  they  took. 

The  first  was  a  desire  to  be  secure  in  the  enjoyment  of 
peace.  They  had  inward  peace  —  the  peace  that  passeth 
all  understanding;  but  they  wanted  outward 
To  be  secure  peace.  It  became  evident  that  they  could  not 
in  enjoy-  have  it  where  they  were.  Bradford  has  made 
ment  of  this  clear  in  his  statement  of  the  reasons  for 
peace  their  removal.     "  When  they  had  lived  at  Am- 

sterdam about  a  year,  Mr.  Robinson,  their 
pastor,  and  some  others  of  the  best  discerning,  seeing  how 
Mr.  John  Smith  and  his  company  was  already  fallen  into 


THE    PILGRIMS  103 

contention  with  the  church  that  was  there  before  them,  and 
no  means  they  could  use  would  do  any  good  to  cure  the 
same,  and  also  that  the  flames  of  contention  were  like  to 
break  out  in  the  ancient  church  itself  (as  afterwards 
lamentably  came  to  pass)  ;  which  things  they  prudently 
foreseeing,  thought  it  was  best  to  remove,  before  they  were 
any  way  engaged  with  the  same;  though  they  well  knew 
it  would  be  much  to  the  prejudice  of  their  outward  estate, 
both  at  present  and  in  likelihood  in  the  future  —  as  in- 
deed it  proved  to  be." 

As  this  quotation  indicates,  sharp  differences  of  view 
and  alienations  had  already  cropped  out  in  the  group  of 
Separatists  which  had  gathered  at  Amsterdam.  This  is 
only  what  might  have  been  expected.  Moral  reforms  have 
a  wonderful  fascination,  not  only  for  careful,  intelligent, 
and  earnest  well-wishers  of  their  kind,  but  for  a  certain 
type  of  sincere  but  impulsive  and  unmanageable  people. 
Every  movement  for  bettering  conditions  in  church  and 
state  and  social  life  is  sure  to  attract  to  itself  more  or  less 
adherents  who  are  best  characterized  by  the  designation 
"  cranks."  They  are  not  fools.  They  are  not  knaves. 
They  are  honest,  and  athrob  in  every  fiber  of  their  being 
with  good  intentions,  but  their  minds  are  not  well  ballasted. 
They  have  more  enthusiasm  than  judgment.  They  easily 
degenerate  into  fanatics,  and  do  more  harm  than  good  to 
the  cause  they  espouse.  They  lack  perspective  and  fail 
to  distinguish  between  points  of  little  consequence  and  points 
of  all  consequence.  They  become  either  quarrelsome  or 
quixotic,  and  sometimes  both. 

The  Separatists  of  Scrooby  were  remarkable  for  their 
freedom  from  the  plague  of  opinionated  and  eccentric  char- 
acters. They  were  as  strong  in  their  purposes  as  fate, 
but  they  were  sane  and  sensible.  Incidental  matters  did  not 
disturb  their  poise  and  divert  them  from  their  main  end. 
The  Separatists  who  preceded  them  to  the  Low  Countries 
and  settled  in  Amsterdam  were  not  so  fortunate.  Their 
leaders  were  neither  so  clear-headed  nor  so  well-balanced 
as  Robinson  and  Brewster  and  the  young  but  wise  Brad- 
ford.    Hence,  small  jealousies  and  open  antagonisms  and 


104  THE    PILGRIMS 

the  promise  of  anything  but  harmony.  This  is  the  pity 
of  it ;  for  some  of  these  men  had  fine  qualities  and  records 
to  command  admiration. 


VI 

Francis  Johnson  was  a  marked  personality,  and  his 
story  is  one  of  thrilling  interest.     He  was  a  Yorkshire 

man,  born  at  Richmond  in  1562.  He  studied 
Francis  at  Cambridge  and  became  a  fellow  of  Christ's 

Johnson         College.     He  entered  the  ministry,  but  soon 

came  to  hold  advanced  views  on  the  subject 
of  church  government.  Indeed,  while  a  young  man  of  only 
twenty-eight,  he  preached  a  sermon  on  this  subject,  which 
gave  such  offense  to  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  that  he 
was  arrested  and  cast  into  prison.  He  promised  to  take 
back  what  he  had  said  and  was  liberated.  The  retraction, 
when  publicly  made,  was  not  satisfactory  to  the  officials, 
and  the  offender  was  expelled  from  the  university  and  re- 
turned to  prison.  A  strong  petition  by  influential  friends 
at  Cambridge  secured  his  release.  He  crossed  over  to 
Middelberg  and  became  the  pastor  of  a  Puritan  church. 

But  though  zealous  for  Puritanism,  he  was  still  a  Puri- 
tan and  not  a  Separatist.  So  far  was  he  from  being  a 
Separatist  that  he  was  *ready  to  do  all  in  his  power  to 
thwart  the  aims  of  those  who  felt  it  to  be  their  duty  to 
come  out  from  the  Established  Church  and  stand  by  them- 
selves. A  treatise  written  by  Barrowe  and  Greenwood 
while  imprisoned  in  the  Fleet,  in  defense  of  their  views  and 
attitude,  was  being  printed  on  the  continent.  The  work, 
while  in  press,  fell  under  the  eye  of  Johnson.  He  took  it 
for  granted  that  the  book  was  full  of  error,  and  secured 
the  authority  of  the  magistrates  to  commit  the  entire  edi- 
tion to  the  flames.  Two  copies  of  the  obnoxious  publica- 
tion escaped.  One  of  them  he  had  the  curiosity  to  read. 
He  became  convinced  that  the  position  taken  by  the  authors 
was  right.  To  make  assurance  doubly  sure  he  went  back 
to  England,  sought  an  interview  with  the  authors  while 
they  were  still  in  jail,  took  the  side  they  advocated,  joined 
the  despised  and  ostracized  fellowship  in  London  of  which 


THE    PILGRIMS  105 

the  two  imprisoned  writers  were  members,  and  was  chosen 
pastor  of  the  flock.  It  was  in  this  way  that  he  became  a 
Separatist,  and  later,  and  after  various  experiences,  an 
exile  at  Amsterdam. 

This  brief  outline  of  his  career  is  enough  to  make  it 
evident  that  Johnson  was  a  man  of  honest  mind,  quick 
impulses,  brave  heart,  and  deep  convictions.  He  was  obedi- 
ent to  the  heavenly  vision.  But  he  was  impatient  of  re- 
straint, inclined  to  have  his  own  way,  and  not  wise  enough 
to  avoid  humiliating  and  disastrous  quarrels.  He  could 
not  get  on  well  with  his  brother  George,  and  he  allowed 
the  style  of  his  wife's  dress  to  drift  into  discussion  and 
become  a  divisive  element  in  the  church.  Hardships,  trials, 
imprisonments,  banishment,  the  loss  of  earthly  goods  and 
the  alienation  of  cherished  friends  wrought  no  changes  in 
his  ideas  and  purposes.  At  the  same  time  he  was  sure  to 
be  a  storm-center  in  all  current  controversies  and  a  dis- 
turber of  the  equanimity  of  his  friends  as  well  as  his  foes. 
He  had  the  insight  and  courage  of  a  reformer,  but  not 
the  skill  and  patience  to  be  a  successful  leader. 

Besides,  the  proper  form  of  government  for  a  church 
interested  Johnson  at  Amsterdam  as  it  had  at  Cambridge, 
and  his  notions  on  the  subject  were  of  a  kind  and  so  pro- 
nounced that  he  and  Robinson  would  hardly  have  been  able 
to  see  eye  to  eye.  He  claimed  independence  for  the  local 
church,  but  he  thought  the  local  church  ought  to  be  under 
the  control  of  a  body  of  elders.  He  rejected  the  Congre- 
gational theory  of  Browne  and  adopted  the  Presbyterian 
theory  of  Barrowe,  his  teacher  in  Separatism.  Thus  all 
the  tendencies  of  his  mind  were  in  a  direction  which  diverged 
more  and  more  from  the  path  along  which  the  Scrooby 
exiles  were  moving.  Take  it  all  in  all,  a  discerning  eye 
could  discover  a  large  stock  of  material  for  future  con- 
troversy in  the  habit  and  temper  of  this  one  man. 


106  THE    PILGRIMS 


VII 

John  Smyth  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  native  of  Gains- 
borough, but  neither  the  place  in  which  he  was  born,  nor 

the  date  of  his  birth,  is  definitely  known.  He 
John  was  graduated  at  Cambridge  and  became   a 

Smyth  fellow  of  Christ's  College.     He  had  many  fine 

qualities.  Bradford  declares  that  he  "  was  an 
eminent  man  in  his  time,  and  a  good  preacher,  and  of  other 
good  parts."  But  the  same  kindly  author  felt  obliged  to 
add:  "  His  inconsistency  and  unstable  judgment,  and  being 
so  suddenly  carried  away  with  things,  did  soon  overthrow 
him."  Robinson,  in  his  "  Dissuasions  Against  Separatism 
Considered  "  devotes  two  lines  to  him ;  but  these  two  lines 
have  in  them  not  so  much  the  benumbing  effect  of  a  blow 
as  the  sharp  thrust  of  the  sting  of  a  bee.  "  His  instability 
and  wantonness  of  wit  is  his  sin  and  our  cross."  It  is  not 
easy  to  characterize  such  a  man  and  keep  steadily  in  mind 
his  commendable  traits  and  real  services.  He  had  a  fertile 
brain,  a  conscience  quickly  responsive  to  what  he  conceived 
to  be  truth  and  duty,  and  pluck  to  match.  Nothing  daunted 
him.  But  while  he  saw  some  things  clearly  he  had  only 
confused  and  distorted  notions  of  some  other  things.  He 
was  unselfish.  His  sincerity  was  never  called  in  question. 
His  career,  however,  was  tortuous.  He  was  one  of  those 
minds  which  seem  to  be  more  attracted  by  a  plausible  con- 
jecture than  by  a  solid  argument.  He  led  his  followers 
out  of  bondage  to  a  corrupt  church  and  a  cruel  govern- 
ment; but  he  did  not  stop  there.  He  kept  leading  them 
until  he  had  them  all  in  the  bogs  and  quicksands  of  un- 
reasonable conceits.  His  scholarly  attainments  were  con- 
siderable. He  became  an  author  early  in  life.  His  writ- 
ings show  both  capacity  and  earnestness,  but  the  tendency 
of  fanaticism  was  strong  in  his  nature,  and  it  appears  to 
have  been  easy  for  him  to  wander  off  into  all  sorts  of 
strange  vagaries.  Consistency  was  no  jewel  in  his  esti- 
mation. Dexter  says  of  him  that  he  "  was  unusually  hos- 
pitable to  plausible  new  views  of  religion,  and  had  an  almost 
chivalric  willingness  to  adopt  them,  wherever  they  might 


THE    PILGRIMS  107 

lead,  which  amounted  to  little  less  than  recklessness.  In 
England  he  had  vacillated  so  that  Ainsworth  said  he  had 
published  '  three  sundry  books  wherein  he  hath  shewed 
himself  of  three  several  religions ;  and  in  another  book 
had  so  contradicted  himself  that  there  was  little  need  of 
another  man's  sword  to  pierce  the  bowels  of  his  error,  when 
his  own  hand  fighteth  against  himself.'  " 

First  and  last,  Smyth  fathered  many  a  strange  notion. 
Some  of  his  conceits  were  worthy  of  the  genius  of  insanity. 
He  began  his  caprices  by  charging  that  it  was  a  sin  to  use 
the  English  Bible  in  worship.  Nothing  but  the  original 
Hebrew  and  Greek  would  satisfy  him.  From  this  he  ad- 
vanced to  the  opinion  that  it  was  improper  and  wrong  to 
have  the  Scriptures  open  before  the  eye  while  preaching, 
or  the  psalm  while  singing.  The  open  book,  so  he  con- 
tended, destroyed  the  spirituality  of  the  worship.  To  be 
acceptable  everything  must  be  from  the  heart  and  by  heart. 
This  position  was  assumed  and  this  controversy  was  sprung 
upon  the  Separatist  churches  only  a  short  time  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Scrooby  people  in  Amsterdam. 

A  greater  surprise  was  in  store.  Shortly  after  the  com- 
ing of  the  Pilgrims  to  the  city  Smyth  changed  his  views 
on  baptism.  He  also  concluded  that  the  Church  had  been 
so  out  of  the  way  in  the  past  and  was  so  corrupt  that  it 
was  not  worthy  to  administer  the  rite.  Hence  his  church 
was  dissolved  and  a  new  start  was  made.  Smyth  baptized 
himself  —  became  a  Se-Baptist.  From  a  basin  he  "  dipped 
up  water  in  his  hand  and  poured  it  over  his  own  forehead 
in  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost."  After 
this  ceremony  he  baptized  the  others  who  were  of  his  way 
of  thinking  and  ready  to  follow  him.  Then  he  had  a  church 
to  suit  him,  for  he  had  made  it  himself.  Alas,  no !  for  his 
next  discovery  was  that  he  and  his  associates  had  been  rash 
in  their  action,  since  there  could  be  no  valid  "  administra- 
tion of  baptism  and  other  ordinances  "  until  the  church  was 
duly  officered.  So  things  went  at  rapid  pace  from  bad  to 
worse  until  in  no  long  time,  as  might  have  been  foreseen, 
Smyth's  church  came  to  an  end  and  his  impracticable  and 
foolish  schemes  melted  into  thin  air.  He  died  a  couple  of 
years  or  so  afterwards,  and  found  his  grave  in  the  city 


108  THE    PILGRIMS 

of  his  adoption.  Unfortunately  he  is  not  the  only  man  in 
history  of  pronounced  ability  and  irreproachable  character 
over  whom  we  are  obliged  to  mourn  because  his  career  was 
wrecked  through  lack  of  common  sense. 


VIII 

Henry  Ainsworth,  a  third  man  who  was  prominent  in  the 
circle  of  Separatists  who  preceded  the  Pilgrims  in  going 

to  Amsterdam,  was  a  choice  soul.  Until  re- 
Henry  cently  his  birthplace,  his  age,  the  institution, 
Ainsworth      [f  anV)  at  wnich  he  studied,  were  all  matters 

of  conjecture.  More  thorough  investigations 
have  brought  to  light  the  fact  that  he  was  born  in  Swanton- 
Morley,  in  Norfolk,  in  1569.  He  studied  for  a  year  at 
St.  John's,  Cambridge.  At  the  end  of  this  period  he  left 
St.  John's  and  entered  Gonville  and  Caius.  He  was  then 
eighteen  years  of  age.  He  did  not  graduate,  but  the  proba- 
bilities are  that  he  spent  not  less  than  three  years  at  this 
college.  It  is  not  true,  therefore,  as  has  been  generally 
supposed,  that  he  had  only  limited  educational  advantages. 
On  the  contrary,  he  was  well  educated  in  the  schools.  This 
is  shown  in  the  eminence  he  won  as  a  Hebrew  scholar  and 
expositor  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  His  notes  on  the 
Pentateuch  gave  him  a  place  in  the  front  rank  of  commen- 
tators on  these  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  latest 
Revisers  found  his  "  Annotations "  "  a  valuable  help  in 
their  work."  Very  high  praise  has  been  bestowed  on  his 
translation  of  the  Psalms.  He  prepared  a  copy  of  the 
Psalms  for  singing.  As  seen  in  his  "  Counterpoyson,"  his 
controversial  writings  were  clear  and  strong.  Johnson, 
Smyth,  and  others  among  the  Amsterdam  exiles,  were 
scholars,  but  when  it  seemed  advisable  to  turn  their  Con- 
fession of  Faith  into  Latin,  Ainsworth  was  the  one  chosen 
for  the  task. 

Independent  of  his  training,  or  rather  as  the  basis  of  his 
training,  Ainsworth  was  a  man  of  exceptional  abilities. 
He  had  a  penetrating  insight  and  clear  apprehension.  His 
reading  along  theological  lines  and  church  history  was 


THE    PILGRIMS  109 

wide,  and  his  knowledge  was  varied  and  accurate.  More- 
over, he  was  a  man  with  a  will  brought  into  conformity  to 
the  divine  will,  and  a  mind  illuminated  by  the  mind  of  the 
Master,  and  a  disposition,  naturally  sweet,  softened  and 
sanctified  by  the  indwelling  of  the  Spirit.  He  was  as  true 
as  steel,  but  he  was  loving  and  lovable.  His  belief  that 
they  were  right  in  their  contention,  and  his  sympathy  with 
them  in  their  trials  and  imprisonment  and  poverty,  led  him 
to  identify  his  name  and  fortune  with  the  section  of  the 
Southwark  flock  which  migrated  to  Holland.  Still,  amidst 
all  the  confusion  and  wrangling  which  went  on  in  the 
churches  of  Johnson  and  Smyth,  he  seems  never  to  have  lost 
his  head,  nor  to  have  fallen  from  the  grace  of  good  temper. 
His  very  excellences,  however,  drew  him  into  the  strife 
and  made  him  the  leader  of  a  party.  He  had  the  sanity 
which  attracted  men  of  sanity  to  his  side,  and  in  a  storm, 
the  few  who  were  not  panic-stricken  felt  safer  with  the 
helm  in  his  hands.  As  we  have  seen,  Ainsworth  was  the 
pastor  of  the  Ancient  Church  during  the  first  years  of  its 
location  in  this  foreign  city.  When  Johnson  arrived  he 
dropped  back  into  the  place  of  teacher.  But  when  the 
split  came  he  was  put  at  the  head  of  the  disaffected  party. 
Still,  though  he  was  positive  in  his  opinions  and  true  to 
them  in  all  emergencies,  he  carried  himself  serenely  through 
the  heats  of  these  sharp  controversies  and  retained  his 
sound  judgment  and  his  unsullied  character  unto  the  end. 
He  had  the  confidence  and  love  of  the  Scrooby  Pilgrims  from 
first  to  last,  and  he  lived  on  and  bore  his  testimony  until 
two  years  after  they  had  reached  the  shores  of  America. 

Richard  Clyfton  was  drawn  into  some  of  these  contro- 
versies, but  though  he  remained  behind  when  Robinson 
and  his  associates  went  to  Leyden,  he  appears 
Richard  neither  to  have  said  nor  to  have  done  anything 

Clyfton  to  forfeit  the  high  esteem  in  which  he  was  held 

by  those  who  knew  him  best.  Had  all  been  of 
the  good  sense  and  good  temper  of  Ainsworth  and  Clyfton 
there  would  have  been  no  trouble. 

Events,  however,  were  ordered  otherwise.  Human  folly 
as  well  as  human  wisdom  was  to  play  a  part  in  the  progress 


110  THE    PILGRIMS 

of  mankind.  Once  more  the  wrath  of  man  was  to  be  made 
to  praise  the  Lord  and  to  promote  the  interests  of  his 
kingdom.  Separatists  —  men  who  stood  out  and  made  all 
kinds  of  sacrifices  in  protest  against  the  evils  and  corrup- 
tions of  the  Church,  and  who  insisted  on  the  right  and 
power  of  self-government  for  the  people  of  God  —  were 
to  make  a  spectacle  of  themselves  before  the  world  by 
their  ideas  and  their  scandalous  wranglings.  It  was  no 
place  for  our  Scrooby  exiles.  If  they  wanted  peace  they 
must  gird  up'  their  loins  and  journey  on  again. 


IX 

A  second  motive  which  influenced  the  Pilgrims  in  their 

purpose  to  leave  Amsterdam  and  go  to  Leyden  was  the 

strong  desire  they  felt  to  keep  together  and 

Strong  de-      maintain  the  separate  identity  and  unity  of 

sire  to  keep    their  little  company. 

together  jn  j-his  desire  we  discover  two  factors,  one 

conscious  and  the  other  unconscious.  They  had 
their  own  thought,  clear  and  definite,  in  the  matter;  and 
this  thought  they  held  to  with  a  striking  tenacity.  But 
over  and  above  this,  so  we  find  it  well-nigh  impossible  not 
to  believe,  they  were  in  the  hands  of  a  Providence  which  was 
shaping  their  ends,  giving  form  to  their  plans,  and  in  a  way 
quite  above  their  immediate  discerning  was  opening  paths 
along  which  it  would  seem  wise  for  them  to  walk.  It  has  been 
said  by  another  that  "  when  they  took  a  step  they  took  it 
with  a  view  to  every  step  that  would  follow,  and  they  fixed 
their  eyes  not  on  any  diversion  by  the  wayside,  but  on  their 
ultimate  destination."  This  is  true.  It  is  true,  however, 
not  because  these  men  in  the  light  of  their  own  understand- 
ing saw  the  end  from  the  beginning,  but  because  the  divine 
Forecaster  saw  it,  and  directed  affairs  after  such  fashion 
that  the  choice  made  by  them  of  a  course  to  pursue  in  each 
crisis  of  their  common  life  should  have  wise  reference  to 
their  final  triumph.  They  were  warp  and  woof  in  God's 
loom.  Unseen  hands  had  shaped  the  pattern  and  were 
throwing  the  shuttles.     The  finished  web  was  to  be  what 


THE    PILGRIMS  111 

the  world  would  admire  through  all  the  generations.  But 
it  took  the  two  factors  of  a  human  purpose  and  a  divine 
guidance  working  together  to  bring  it  about. 

Having  said  so  much,  it  hardly  needs  to  be  added  that 
the  Scrooby  exiles  did  not  unite  with  either  of  the  two 
churches  which  were  on  the  ground  before  them, 
Maintained  \yni  adhered  to  their  own  organization  and  kept 
their  own  [t  intact.  They  united  with  the  Ancient 
organiza-  Church  in  worship,  and  appear  to  have 
tion  been  edified  by  the  services,  but  they  did  not 

disband  and  join  them.  As  might  have  been 
expected,  Johnson's  followers  contained  some  unworthy 
members.  Still,  Bradford  bears  testimony  to  the  fact  that 
among  them  there  were  "  many  worthy  men,"  and  that  in 
the  best  days  of  the  church  they  displayed  a  "  beauty  and 
order"  which  were  admirable.  The  same  thing  was  true 
of  Smyth's  church.  There  were  in  it  not  a  few  "  honest 
and  godly  men."  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  large 
majority  of  the  members  in  both  churches  were  of  this  sort 
— "  honest  and  godly."  Had  they  been  wisely  led  the 
story  of  their  careers  would  have  been  a  widely  different 
one.  Such,  however,  was  not  the  case.  Both  flocks  were 
badly  shepherded.  In  view  of  the  disturbances  which  had 
already  taken  place,  and  of  others  likely  to  occur  in  the 
near  future,  and  especially  in  view  of  the  subtle  something 
in  their  own  souls  which  controlled  and  guided  them  at  every 
critical  juncture  in  their  lives  and  kept  them  true  to  their 
sublime  destiny,  they  stood  aloof  from  the  other  organiza- 
tions and  preserved  their  own  identity. 

On  these  two  grounds,  therefore  —  the  peace  of  their 
own  members  and  the  unbroken  continuity  of  their  fellow- 
ship —  the  Scrooby  exiles  decided  to  remove  from  Am- 
sterdam to  Leyden. 


112  THE    PILGRIMS 


These  Pilgrims,  however,  wise  and  considerate  beyond 
the  men  of  their  day,  were  not  willing  to  intrude  themselves 

upon  a  community  which  was  not  willing  to 
Petition  for  receive  them.  When  it  had  been  settled  by 
leave  to  them  that  it  was  better  to  leave  Amsterdam 
settle  at  an(j  g0  elsewhere,  and  when  Leyden  had  been 
Leyden  fixed  upon  as  the  most  eligible  place  to  which 

they  could  move,  they  drew  up  an  application 
and  sent  it  to  the  authorities  of  the  city  in  which  they  made 
known  their  desire  to  become  residents  of  the  town,  and 
respectfully  asked  if  they  might  do  so,  and  if,  in  doing  so, 
they  might  "  have  the  freedom  thereof  in  carrying  on  their 
trades."  The  answer  of  these  sturdy  Dutch  burgomasters 
was  what  might  have  been  anticipated.  They  declared  it 
to  be  their  policy  to  "  refuse  no  honest  persons  free  ingress 
to  come  and  have  their  residence"  in  their  city;  but  they 
added  a  clause  which  bristled  with  significance,  and  which 
it  would  be  well  if  all  cities  could  incorporate  in  their  im- 
migration laws,  "  provided  that  such  persons  behave  them- 
selves, and  submit  to  the  laws  and  ordinances."  However, 
the  applicants  had  their  request  granted,  and  in  most 
gracious  language :  "  The  coming  of  the  memorialists  will 
be  agreeable  and  welcome."  This  kindly  permission  must 
have  put  heart  into  the  Pilgrims  and  confirmed  them  in 
their  purpose  and  the  wisdom  of  it.  They  soon  left,  a 
hundred  strong,  "  or  thereabouts,"  prophetic  of  the  hun- 
dred strong  "  or  thereabouts,"  who  at  a  later  date  were 
to  cross  the  Atlantic  in  the  Mayflower,  and,  turning 
their  backs  on  the  city  which  had  been  to  them  a  city  of 
refuge  in  their  dire  distress,  and  of  whose  hospitality  they 
were  never  unmindful,  they  set  their  faces  towards  the  other 
city,  which  had  become  a  renowned  center  of  liberty  and 
learning,  and  within  whose  walls  they  were  to  receive  the 
training  necessary  to  fit  them  to  become  the  founders  of 
a  free  church  and  a  new  state  in  a  recently  discovered 
world. 


VII 

THE    PILGRIMS    AT    LEYDEN 


Leyden  was  at  last  relieved  by  William  of  Orange,  who  from  his  sick 
bed  had  arranged  for  the  piercing  of  the  dykes  and  letting  in  enough  water 
to  swim  his  ships  and  rout  the  Spaniards.  Out  of  tribulation  comes  good. 
For  this  constancy  and  endurance  in  the  siege  the  Prince  offered  the  people 
of  Leyden  one  of  two  benefits  —  exemption  from  taxes  or  the  establishment 
of  a  university.    They  took  the  university.  —  E.  V.  Lucas. 

Here,  then,  in  the  beautiful  city  of  Leyden,  with  its  famous  university 
and  its  heroic  past,  the  wanderers,  in  1609,  found  a  home.  They  were  few 
in  number,  and  mostly  of  obscure  origin,  so  that  their  story  in  the  land  of 
their  adoption  would  have  no  historic  importance  except  for  the  influence 
exerted  on  the  world  by  their  descendants  in  America.  In  view  of  this 
influence,  however,  every  detail  of  their  prior  life  becomes  of  interest. 

Douglas  Campbell. 

That  Leyden  afforded  not  merely  hospitality  and  freedom,  but  the  best 
school  in  the  world  for  the  training  of  men  in  the  principles  of  liberty,  and 
in  endurance  for  the  sake  of  liberty,  is  beyond  question. 

Alexander  McKenzie. 

Probably  the  Pilgrims  cared  little  about  conspicuous  prosperity  or  social 
eminence  in  Holland.  Could  they  have  secured  moderate  material  comfort 
and  an  assured  opportunity  of  desirable  moral  and  spiritual  development 
they  could  have  been  content  in  Leyden. 

Morton  Dexter. 


VII 

THE    PILGRIMS   AT   LEYDEN 

IT  is  with  a  sense  of  satisfaction  that  we  contemplate  the 
Pilgrims  at  Leyden.  They  have  reached  a  place  of 
safety.  They  can  live  in  peace.  They  can  get  their 
bearings.  With  time  and  opportunity  for  sober  reflec- 
tion, for  comparison  of  views,  and  for  looking  at  the  ques- 
tion in  all  its  aspects,  they  can  find  out  whether  the  steps 
taken  by  them  seem  to  have  been  wise,  and  whether  it  is 
better  to  hold  fast  to  their  purpose  and  go  straight  for- 
ward, or  to  change  front  and  beat  a  retreat. 


Leyden  is  a  city  of  remarkable  interest.    Bradford  calls 
it  "  fair  and  beautiful,  and  of  a  sweet  situation."    Motley, 
it  will  be  remembered,  describes  the  place  in 
Leyden  terms  of  enthusiastic  admiration.     One  of  the 

French  chroniclers  says :  "  The  city  of  Leyden 
is,  without  contradiction,  one  of  the  grandest,  the  comliest, 
and  the  most  charming  cities  in  the  world."  An  Italian 
writer  of  eminence,  within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century, 
speaks  of  it  as  "  the  ancient  Athens  of  the  North,  the 
Saragossa  of  the  Low  Countries,  the  oldest  and  most 
glorious  daughter  of  Holland."  One  who  has  walked  its 
streets,  strolled  along  its  canals,  and  wandered  at  leisure 
through  its  public  parks,  sat  under  the  shade  of  its  lindens, 
observed  the  extreme  neatness  which  everywhere  prevails, 
and  passed  through  the  halls  of  its  renowned  institutions, 
can  join  heartily  in  these  words  of  praise.  At  the  time 
of  the  Pilgrims  it  had  a  population  of  about  forty-five 
thousand. 


116  THE    PILGRIMS 

The  city  is  located  in  South  Holland,  on  the  Old  Rhine, 
a  little  more  than  six  miles  from  the  North  Sea.     It  is  in 

the  midst  of  towns  justly  renowned  for  their 
Location         historic   events   and   associations.      Less   than 

thirty  miles,  directly  east,  is  Utrecht.  Some- 
thing over  twenty,  a  few  points  to  the  east  of  north,  is 
Amsterdam.  Going  a  bit  west  of  south  for  a  half-dozen 
miles  or  so  one  reaches  The  Hague ;  while  only  a  little  fur- 
ther away,  and  more  nearly  south,  is  Delft.  Not  quite 
so  far  away  as  either  Utrecht  or  Amsterdam  is  Rotterdam, 
the  birthplace  of  Erasmus.  About  as  far  north  from 
Leyden,  as  Rotterdam  is  south,  is  Haarlem  —  a  city  which 
lends  the  attractiveness  of  a  great  past  to  the  circle  of  dis- 
tinguished communities  in  which  it  is  located.  It  would  not 
be  easy  to  match  the  region  in  the  center  of  which  the  Pil- 
grims made  their  temporary  home  for  heroic  achievements. 
In  the  days  when  the  story  of  the  Pilgrims  was  unfold- 
ing, these  cities  were  the  centers  of  trade  and  commerce, 

the  seats  of  vast  and  important  industries,  and 
Centers  of  the  homes  of  art  and  learning.  They  were  the 
interest  and  spheres  of  subtle  diplomacy  and  far-seeing  and 
influence        courageous  statesmanship,  and  their  battered 

walls  bore  witness  to  mighty  sieges  and  battles, 
to  awful  onsets  and  heroic  defenses.  The  influences  which 
the  people  of  these  Dutch  towns  contributed  to  the  progress 
of  civilization  were  not  only  potent,  but  enduring.  They  are 
felt  to-day  wherever  industry  and  thrift  are  at  a  premium, 
and  scholarship  and  esthetic  skill  are  held  in  honor,  and 
civil  liberty  and  religious  freedom  are  cherished.  Travelers 
who  would  set  foot  on  spots  of  permanent  and  fruitful  his- 
toric interest  cannot  afford  to  omit  Leyden  and  the  cities 
which  cluster  about  it  from  their  European  itineraries. 

Leyden  gets  its  name,  so  Dr.  Griffis  tells  us,  "  from  the 
old  Celtic  word  *  Lugdun,'  which  means  the  looking  place, 

or  outlook,  referring  to  the  great  mound  as 
Origin  of  being  placed  anciently  at  the  junction  of  the 
name  two  branches  of  the  Rhine  to  command  both 

waterways."  In  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  called 
Leithen.  Whether  Leyden  is  really  identical  with  the  old 
Lugdunum  Batavorum  has  been  called  in  question.     But 


THE    PILGRIMS  117 

this  is  a  matter  of  small  consequence.  Without  doubt, 
Batavians,  whose  spirit  of  independence  and  indomitable 
pluck  stirred  such  enthusiasm  in  the  mind  of  Motley,  and 
whose  prowess  the  embattled  legions  of  the  Eternal  City 
found  it  so  hard  to  match,  once  dwelt  there.  These  self- 
respecting  and  sturdy  tribes,  then  the  Romans,  and  after 
these  the  representatives  of  the  German  race  were  the  his- 
toric peoples  who,  in  succession,  occupied  the  site  of  this 
old  and  intensely  interesting  town.  The  original  attrac- 
tion of  the  place,  whoever  may  have  settled  there  first,  was 
very  clearly  its  strategic  situation.  By  the  erection  of  this 
"  burg,"  which  served  the  double  purpose  of  a  point  of 
observation  and  a  strong  defense,  the  citizens  of  the  place 
were  enabled  to  detect  from  afar  the  approach  of  an  enemy, 
and  thus  to  make  a  timely  and  effective  stand  against 
invasion. 

II 

Early  in  the  history  of  Holland  members  of  the  ruling 
and  aristocratic  classes  made  Leyden  their  place  of  resi- 
dence. This  brought  wealth  to  the  town  and 
History  of  gave  it  social  and  political  standing.  Manu- 
the  town  facturing  interests  were  fostered.  The  skill  of 
its  artisans  was  celebrated  far  and  wide.  Its 
textile  products  —  more  especially  its  woolens  —  were  in 
high  repute  throughout  Europe,  and  commanded  the  best 
prices  in  the  market.  The  upper  classes  were  not  only  rich, 
but  they  were  characterized  by  genuine  liberality  and  an 
intelligent  public  spirit.  Democracy  had  not  come  to  its 
full  fruitage  —  far  from  it ;  but  there  was  a  sense  of  obli- 
gation to  the  community  and  a  disposition  to  aid  which 
were  highly  commendable.  Dr.  Griffis  says  once  more: 
"  Already,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the  city  was  noted  for 
its  splendid  churches,  for  its  hospitals,  its  orphan  asy- 
lums, and  its  schools,  where  the  poor  received  instruc- 
tion free  of  charge,  the  schools  being  supported  by  public 
taxation." 

The  famous  St.  Peter's  Church,  the  largest  church  in  the 
city,  alike  the  tomb  and  the  monument  of  many  illustrious 


118  THE    PILGRIMS 

dead,  and  made  still  more  attractive,  if  not  more  famous, 
in  the  estimation  of  Congregationalists  throughout  the 
world  by  bearing  on  its  walls  a  memorial  to 
St.  Peter's  John  Robinson,  was  built  and  dedicated  as 
Church  early  as  1121.    Inasmuch  as  the  edifice  was  re- 

built and  greatly  enlarged  two  centuries  later, 
there  is  confusion  about  the  true  date  of  its  construction, 
and  the  time  is  set  by  some,  as  above,  at  1121,  and  by 
others  at  1315.  One  of  the  features  of  the  building  in  the 
early  centuries  of  its  existence  was  its  lofty  and  imposing 
West  Tower,  but  this  fell  in  1512. 

One  has  only  to  go  into  the  museum  of  the  town,  and 
make  a  little  study  of  the  relics  and  trophies  there  gathered, 
to  understand  how  severe  have  been  the  strug- 
Rehcs  and     g]es  an(j  \low  Splendid  have  been  the  triumphs 
trophies  through  which  the  old  city  has  passed  in  the 

many  centuries  since  it  was  founded. 
There  was  something,  too,  in  the  intellectual  and  social 
atmosphere  of  the  community  which  not  only  bred  self-re- 
spect and  thrift  and  a  high  type  of  courage, 
■A-rt  but  was  especially  favorable  to  the  development 

of  the  art  instinct.  Leyden  has  been  fitly  called 
the  "  teeming  mother  of  painters."  A  renowned  group  of 
masters  of  the  brush  appeared  on  the  scene  about  the  time 
of  the  occupancy  of  the  city  by  the  Pilgrims.  Rembrandt 
was  a  child  three  years  old  when  these  wanderers  for  prin- 
ciple's sake  entered  the  town.  Gerard  Douw,  a  famous 
pupil  of  the  most  famous  master  of  the  brush  which  Holland 
ever  produced,  was  a  boy  of  only  seven  summers  when 
Brewster  and  Bradford  and  their  associates  left  the  shelter 
of  the  Dutchland  for  the  shores  of  America.  Jan  Steen 
was  born  the  year  after  Robinson  died.  Other  distinguished 
artists  were  natives  of  Leyden,  but  these  three,  particularly 
when  the  surpassing  excellence  and  world-wide  renown  of  the 
first  of  the  three  is  taken  into  consideration,  are  enough  to 
confer  imperishable  honor  on  any  city. 


THE    PILGRIMS  119 


in 


But  the  special  pride  of  Leyden  at  the  time  the  Pilgrims 
were  there,  and  its  glory  ever  since,  was  its  magnificent 
university.      For  a  twofold  reason  it  might 
The  uni-        wen  \ye    This  university  was  much  in  itself,  and 
versity  ft  ha(i  ^g^  given  to  the  city,  on  recommenda- 

tion of  William  the  Silent,  in  recognition  of  the 
utter  self-denial  and  superb  heroism  the  citizens  had  shown  in 
resisting  the  siege  of  the  Spaniards  in  1573-74,  and  starv- 
ing and  dying  by  hundreds  rather  than  open  the  gates  and 
surrender  to  the  enemy.  This  took  place  only  a  little  more 
than  thirty  years  before  the  English  exiles  made  the  city 
their  temporary  home;  and  the  story  of  it  must  still  have 
been  a  burning  theme  on  many  a  lip.  The  walls  of  this 
school  of  learning  would  be  a  perpetual  reminder  both  to 
native  inhabitants  and  strangers  of  the  awful  experiences 
through  which  the  people  of  the  city  had  only  recently 
passed,  and  of  the  magnificent  appreciation  exhibited  by 
their  great  and  martyred  leader  of  these  services  and  sacri- 
fices. Further  on  there  will  be  occasion  to  say  more  concern- 
ing this  institution.  Only  here  and  now,  and  once  for  all,  it 
may  be  said  that  the  University  of  Leyden  was  at  the  front 
alike  for  the  learning  of  its  teachers  and  the  number  and 
character  of  the  students  who  thronged  its  halls.  There  was 
a  time  when  neither  Oxford  nor  Cambridge  was  in  such  high 
repute.  The  names  of  Scaliger,  Arminius,  and  Grotius 
would  make  any  school  famous.  Andrew  D.  White,  in  his 
autobiography,  in  speaking  of  Grotius  says :  "  More  than 
ever  it  is  clear  to  me  that  of  all  books  ever  written  —  not 
claiming  divine  inspiration  —  the  great  work  of  Grotius 
on  '  War  and  Peace '  has  been  of  most  benefit  to  mankind." 
Our  own  John  Quincy  Adams  was  once  a  student  in  this 
institution. 

IV 

On  reaching  Leyden,  the  first  thing  for  the  exiles  to  do 
was  to  find  houses  to  shelter  them.  Fortunately,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  application  made  by  Robinson  and  his  associates 


120  THE    PILGRIMS 

for  permission  to  become  residents  of  Leyden  was  favorably 
received,  so  that  the  little  party  —  about  a  hundred  of  them 
in  all  —  was  able  to  enter  the  town,  not  only 
Finding  free  from  suspicion  and  prejudice,  but  with  the 

homes  in  fun  approval  of  the  authorities.  This  good 
Leyden  opinion  of  them  which  was  entertained  by  the 

Leyden  officials,  when  they  were  permitted  to 
come  and  dwell  among  them,  was  never  changed. 

The  probabilities  are  that  the  first  home  of  the  Pilgrims 
in  Leyden  was  on  St.  Ursula  Street,  in  a  section  which  had 
recently  been  annexed  to  the  city.  This  new  section  lay  to 
the  northwest  of  the  old  portion  of  the  town,  and,  like  addi- 
tions to  our  thrifty  and  growing  American  cities,  it  no 
doubt  afforded  better  promise  to  newcomers  with  small 
means,  and  especially  to  a  group  of  newcomers  who  wished 
to  keep  close  together,  of  finding  roofs  to  cover  their  heads, 
than  the  older  and  more  thickly  settled  quarters. 

By  the  end  of  a  twelvemonth,  however,  these  Pilgrims 
had  pulled  themselves  together,  and  gotten  the  situation  well 
in  hand.  A  rare  property,  in  a  choice  location,  was  put 
upon  the  market  and  they  bought  it.  This  purchase  was 
on  Kloksteeg,  or  Bell  Alley.  The  property  consisted  of  a 
house  and  garden,  only  a  few  steps  across  the  lane  from 
St.  Peter's  Church,  and  close  to  the  university  and  the 
City  Hall.  Their  new  location,  therefore,  put  them  at 
the  center  of  things,  and  they  had  a  fair  chance  to  work 
out  their  destiny.  For  this  estate,  secured  through  the 
agency  of  Robinson  and  three  associates,  the  Pilgrims  gave 
eight  thousand  guilders.  Two  thousand  guilders  were 
paid  down,  and  the  balance  of  the  obligation  was  secured 
by  mortgage,  and  met  by  the  payment  of  five  hundred 
guilders  annually.  Who  among  these  people  had  ready 
cash,  or  how  all  of  them  combined,  even  by  pooling  their 
assets,  could  get  this  sum  of  money  together,  is  not  quite 
clear;  but  this  is  what  they  did.  The  house  purchased 
appears  to>  have  been  quite  large ;  and  it  became  the  resi- 
dence of  Robinson  and  the  meeting-place  of  the  little  flock 
of  which  Robinson  was  the  shepherd.  Smaller  dwellings 
to  the  number  of  twenty-one  were  soon  erected  on  the  vacant 
part  of  the  lot  they  had  bought,  and  in  a  little  while  the 


THE    PILGRIMS  121 

Pilgrims  were  clustered  about  a  common  court  in  a  compact 
and  homogeneous  colony.  This  is  the  place  that  was  made 
historic  by  the  residence  of  the  Pilgrims  in  Leyden.  As 
long  as  there  are  lovers  of  liberty  and  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Way  in  the  world  —  this  spot  will  be  a  shrine  to  be 
visited  with  grateful  and  sacred  awe. 


Very  naturally,  on  their  arrival  at  Leyden,  the  means 
by  which  they  should  obtain  a  livelihood  became  a  question, 
and  a  very  pressing  one,  with  the  Pilgrims. 
Settling  Though  not  utterly  without  resources,  as  we 

down  to  have  just  seen,  they  were  yet  in  straitened  cir- 
work  cumstances,  and  must  needs  secure  their  subsis- 

tence by  toil  of  some  sort.  What  could  they  do 
and  what  was  open  to  them?  They  were  not  professional 
men.  They  were  not  trained  scholars.  They  were  not 
skilled  artisans.  Of  those  who  came  from  Scrooby  to 
Leyden  no  one,  except  William  Brewster,  would  appear  to 
have  had  much  business  experience.  They  were  a  rural 
people,  familiar,  all  of  them  no  doubt,  with  ordinary  agricul- 
tural pursuits,  and  some  of  them,  too,  with  such  small  trades 

—  carpentering  and  smithing,  for  instance  —  as  would 
naturally  grow  up  in  a  country  community.  But  to  what 
pecuniary  advantage  could  this  knowledge  be  turned  in  a 
city?  There  was  nothing  for  them  but  to  fall  in  with  the 
ways  of  the  people,  and  learn  to  do  what  they  were  doing, 
and  turn  their  hands  to  whatever  remunerative  employment 
circumstances  might  offer. 

Speaking  in  general  of  the  difficulties  which  confronted 
them  when   they   first   "came   into   the   Low    Countries," 

Bradford  says  that  "  they  saw  many  goodly 
Difficulties  an(j  fortified  cities,"  and  "  heard  a  strange  and 
in  the  uncouth  language,"  and  beheld  "  manners  and 

way  customs  "  so  different  from  those  they  had  been 

used  to  in  "  their  plain  country  villages  "  that 
it  seemed  as  if  they  had  "  come  into  a  new  world."  "  But," 
he  adds,  "  these  were  not  the  things  they  much  looked  on ;  " 

—  "  for  they  had  other  work  in  hand,  and  another  kind  of 


122  THE    PILGRIMS 

war  to  wage  and  maintain.  For  they  saw  fair  and  beautiful 
cities,  flowing  with  abundance  of  all  sorts  of  wealth  and 
riches,  yet  it  was  not  long  before  they  saw  the  grim  and 
grisly  face  of  poverty  coming  after  them  like  an  armed  man, 
with  whom  they  must  buckle  and  encounter,  and  from  whom 
they  could  not  fly;  but  they  were  armed  with  faith  and 
patience  against  him,  and  all  his  encounters;  and  though 
they  were  sometimes  foiled,  yet  by  God's  assistance  they 
prevailed  and  got  the  victory."  Speaking  more  particularly 
of  the  material  outlook  at  Leyden  when  the  Pilgrims  reached 
that  city,  the  same  author  says :  "  Wanting  that  traffic  by 
sea  which  Amsterdam  enjoys,  it  was  not  so  beneficial  for 
their  outward  means  of  living  and  estate.  But  being  now 
here  pitched,  they  fell  to  such  trades  and  employments  as 
they  best  could;  valuing  peace  and  their  spiritual  comfort 
above  any  other  riches  whatsoever.  And  at  length  they  came 
to  raise  a  competent  and  comfortable  living,  but  with  hard 
and  continual  labor."  While  it  is  true  that  Leyden  was 
wanting  in  the  "  traffic  by  sea  "  which  Amsterdam  enjoyed, 
it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  Leyden  was  a  hive  of  industry, 
and  in  the  multiplied  forms  of  manufacturing  which  it  car- 
ried on  it  opened  many  doors  to  men  who  were  more  than 
willing  to  earn  an  honest  living  by  honest  toil. 


VI 

As  a  matter  of  course,  therefore,  these  men  with  a  con- 
science, and  with  the  self-respect  and  high  purpose  sure 

to  be  associated  with  a  well-trained  and  vigor- 
Vocations  ous  moral  sense,  went  to  work  at  such  simple, 
chosen  every-day  tasks  as  others  in  like  stress  of  need 

were  engaged  in,  and  as  were  offered  them  by 
the  employers  of  manual  labor.  In  the  sweat  of  their  faces 
they  earned  and  ate  their  daily  bread.  Some  became  car- 
penters ;  others  took  up  the  trade  of  weavers ;  others  still 
learned  to  lay  bricks,  or  to  spin  twine,  or  to  make  furniture, 
or  glass,  or  candles,  or  clocks,  or  pumps.  For  some  there 
were  openings  in  other  directions,  and  they  became  bakers, 
brewers,  coopers,  or  tailors.    Bassett  carried  a  hod ;  Cush- 


THE    PILGRIMS  123 

man  and  Masterson  carded  wool ;  Jessop  and  Collins  made 
bombazine,  or  a  twilled  fabric  of  silk  and  worsted;  Cuth- 
bertson  and  Lee  made  hats ;  Bradford,  Fuller,  Southworth, 
and  Wilson  manufactured  fustian,  or  a  twilled  cloth  whose 
constituents  were  cotton  and  linen;  Morton,  Butler,  Jen- 
nings, and  Pickering  turned  to  merchandizing;  Brewster 
taught  English  at  first,  and  later  ran  a  printing-press. 
Others  who  came  in  and  joined  the  colony  at  subsequent 
periods  distributed  themselves  through  these  and  like  depart- 
ments of  industry.  Judged  by  the  standards  of  the  world 
these  exiles  were  a  lowly  people,  and  they  were  content  to 
earn  their  living  in  humble  occupations ;  but  it  is  to  be  said 
to  their  everlasting  credit  that  they  did  with  their  might 
what  their  hands  found  to  do,  and,  what  is  still  more  to  their 
credit,  they  did  honest  work,  and  conducted  themselves  after 
a  fashion  to  meet  the  hearty  approval  of  the  community 
among  whom  they  dwelt. 

On  the  removal  of  the  Pilgrims  from  Leyden,  slanders 
were  set  afoot  by  their  adversaries  to  the  effect  that  the 
State  had  grown  weary  of  them  and  driven 
Warmly         them  out.     Bradford,  in  a  spirit  of  calm  and 
com-  pardonable   triumph,    mentions   two    or  three 

mended  facts  to  show  the  groundlessness  of  these  re- 

ports. "  First,  though  many  of  them  were 
poor,  yet  there  was  none  so  poor,  but  if  they  were  known 
to  be  of  the  congregation,  the  Dutch,  either  bakers  or  others, 
would  trust  them  in  any  reasonable  matter  when  they  wanted 
money.  Because  they  had  found  by  experience  how  careful 
they  were  to  keep  to  their  word,  and  saw  them  so  painful  and 
diligent  in  their  callings ;  yea,  they  would  strive  to  get  their 
custom,  and  to  employ  them  above  others  in  their  work,  for 
their  honesty  and  diligence."  To  this  somewhat  conclusive 
evidence  of  the  respect  in  which  the  Pilgrims  were  held  in 
Leyden  the  same  author  adds :  "  Again,  the  magistrates 
of  the  city,  about  the  time  of  their  coming  away,  or  a  little 
before,  in  the  public  place  of  justice,  gave  this  commend- 
able testimony  of  them,  in  the  reproof  of  the  Walloons  who 
were  of  the  French  Church  in  the  city.  '  These  English,' 
said  they,  •  have  lived  amongst  us  now  this  twelve  years, 
and  yet  we  never  had  any  suit  or  accusation  against  any  of 


124  THE    PILGRIMS 

them ;  but  your  strifes  and  quarrels  are  continual.'  "  As  if 
to  settle  the  question  beyond  controversy,  Bradford  cites 
the  further  fact  of  the  marked  esteem  in  which  Robinson, 
the  head  of  their  colony,  was  held  by  the  professors  in  the 
university,  and  the  responsibilities  to  which  he  was  advanced 
by  the  Calvinistic  wing  of  them  in  connection  with  the  great 
controversy  of  the  time.  But  this  will  come  into  review  a 
little  further  on ;  yet  it  called  for  notice  here  because  of  the 
slander  it  was  brought  forward  to  refute.  History  fur- 
nishes no  counter-note  to  the  claim  that  the  Pilgrims,  while 
in  Leyden,  showed  themselves  to  be  an  eminently  honest,  in- 
dustrious, thrifty,  law-abiding,  and  God-fearing  people. 


VII 

The  additions  to  the  numbers  of  the  exiles  from  the  out- 
side during  the  years  of  their  Leyden  life  were  not  so  many 
as  might  have  been  expected.  The  persecuting 
New-  spirit  still  remained  active  under  James  in  Eng- 

comers  land,  and  loyalty  to  conscience  was  still  a  char- 

acteristic of  a  large  and  intelligent  section  of 
the  English  people.  But  not  many  were  disposed  to  cast  in 
their  lot  with  this  band  of  Separatists  at  Leyden.  Bradford 
says :  "  Many  came  to  them  from  divers  parts  of  England, 
so  as  they  grew  a  great  congregation."  But  he  was  speak- 
ing in  comparative  terms.  Men  of  importance  to  the  colony 
came  to  them ;  and  the  one  hundred  more  or  less  who  first 
entered  Leyden  grew  to  be  three  hundred,  or  thereabouts. 
Under  the  circumstances  this  seemed  to  the  good  governor 
a  remarkable  increase;  but  the  increase  was  large  only 
relatively  —  not  actually. 

However,  there  were  accessions  to  the  colony  from  the  out- 
side, and  quite  a  number  came  to  them  whose  coming  was  of 
great  advantage.  Of  these  John  Carver,  Edward  Winslow, 
Thomas  Brewer,  Robert  Cushman,  Isaac  Allerton,  Samuel 
Fuller,  and  Miles  Standish  deserve  special  mention. 

John  Carver  appears  to  have  been  a  man  of  well-balanced 
mind,  of  marked  practical  sagacity,  of  deep  and  earnest 


THE    PILGRIMS  125 

convictions,  and  of  solid  character.     He  was  wise,  consid- 
erate, kind,  and  he  possessed  in  no  small  measure  those 
elements  of  manhood  which  inspire  and  justify 
Carver  confidence.    In  addition  to  these  personal  quali- 

ties which  fitted  him  so  peculiarly  for  the  service 
he  was  to  render,  he  was  evidently  a  person  of  some  means, 
and  was  sufficiently  familiar  with  business  and  business 
methods  to  command  the  respect  of  men  of  affairs.  From 
what  county  in  England  he  came  to  Ley  den  is  not  known. 
Nor  is  there  any  record  of  the  time  of  his  joining  the  exiles. 
But  he  was  in  the  city  and  a  member  of  the  colony  as  early 
as  1617,  for  both  himself  and  his  wife  are  entered  in  the 
register  of  marriages  as  witnesses  to  a  marriage  ceremony 
within  this  year.  He  was  made  a  deacon  in  the  church. 
When  the  time  came  for  entering  seriously  on  negotiations 
for  the  transfer  of  the  colony  to  the  New  World  he  was  one 
of  the  agents  to  whom  the  difficult  and  delicate  business  was 
entrusted.  The  fact  that  Robinson  addressed  him  in  terms 
of  confidence  and  love  in  a  personal  letter,  and  also  made 
him  the  organ  through  which  he  communicated  his  words  of 
tender  counsel  to  the  whole  body  of  the  Pilgrims  on  their 
migration,  and  that  he  was  selected  to  be  the  first  governor 
of  this  historic  company,  shows  how  commanding  was  his 
personality,  how  judicious  and  dignified  his  bearing,  and  in 
what  high  esteem  he  was  held  by  all  his  associates.  These 
Pilgrims  were  but  a  little  band,  and  they  make  but  a  beg- 
garly showing  compared  with  the  hosts  of  voters  who  now 
assemble  at  the  appointed  places  on  election  day  to  determine 
who  shall  be  the  chief  executive  officer  of  any  one  of  our 
leading  commonwealths ;  but  it  was  no  small  thing  to  be  the 
man  first  named  by  these  founders  of  a  democracy  to  pre- 
side over  the  destinies  of  the  new  state  they  were  building. 
No  statue  of  him  may  be  chosen  to  adorn  our  modern 
temples  of  fame;  representatives  of  more  conspicuous 
abilities  and  service  may  crowd  him  out;  but  he  occupies 
a  niche  in  history  from  which  he  can  never  be  dislodged. 

Concerning  Winslow  Dr.  Brown  makes  this  interesting 
statement :  "  Edward  Winslow,  an  able  and  educated  young 
English  gentleman  from  Droitwich,  being  on  his  travels, 


126  THE    PILGRIMS 

happened  to  come  to  Ley  den  in  1617,  and  was  so  struck 
with  the  Christian  life  of  the  brotherhood  that  he  cast  in  his 

lot  with  them,  and  not  only  became  a  member  of 
"Winslow        the  fellowship,  but  went  with  them  afterwards  to 

New  England,  his  name  standing  third  among 
those  who  signed  the  compact  on  board  the  Mayflower." 
Carver,  Bradford,  Winslow,  Brewster,  is  the  order  in  which 
the  names  of  the  leaders  appear  on  that  great  and  ever-mem- 
orable document.  Winslow  took  up  the  trade  of  printer, 
and  by  this  kind  of  work  maintained  himself  at  Leyden. 
He  became  a  writer  as  well,  and  the  productions  of  his  pen, 
like  those  of  Bradford's,  are  an  invaluable  source  of  first- 
hand information  touching  the  history  of  the  Pilgrims. 
Students  of  these  early  days  would  deem  it  a  great  loss  were 
they  deprived  of  the  help  to  an  understanding  of  the  state 
of  affairs  found  in  his  "  Good  News  from  New  England," 
"  Hypocricy  Unmasked,"  and  other  contributions  made  by 
him  to  the  history  of  the  times.  In  1633,  1636,  and  again 
in  1644,  Winslow  was  chosen  governor  of  the  Plymouth 
Colony.  In  the  interest  of  the  colony  he  was  often  sent  to 
England.  Cromwell  had  a  high  opinion  of  his  merits,  and 
appointed  him  on  commissions  which  called  for  the  exercise 
of  great  good  sense  and  judicial  fairness.  He  once  had  the 
honor  of  an  imprisonment  for  several  months  in  London  at 
the  instigation  of  Archbishop  Laud  for  having  presumed, 
while  only  a  layman,  to  teach  in  the  church,  and  in  virtue 
of  his  office  as  a  mere  magistrate  to  perform  marriage  cere- 
monies. Dr.  Morton  Dexter  says  of  Winslow :  "  He  ap- 
pears to  have  been  the  only  member  of  the  Pilgrim  Company 
who  gained  an  eminence  recognized  at  the  time  in  England 
as  conspicuous." 

Thomas  Brewer  was  a  man  of  property  —  a  landowner 
in  Kent  —  with  the  distinction  in  society  which  belonged 

to  an  owner  of  land  in  England  in  those  days. 
Brewer  jje  never  came  to  America,  but  he  played  an 

important  part  in  the  life  of  the  Pilgrims  in 
Holland.  He  was  one  of  the  three  members  of  the  Separa- 
tist Church  at  Leyden  who  entered  as  students  in  the  uni- 
versity.    Speaking  of  Brewster,  and  of  what  he  did  in 


THE    PILGRIMS  127 

Leyden,  Bradford  says :  "  He  also  had  means  to  set  up 
printing,  by  the  help  of  some  friends."  Thomas  Brewer 
was  the  "  friend  "  who  put  capital  into  the  business,  and 
enabled  the  good  elder  to  publish,  on  a  somewhat  surprising 
scale,  ecclesiastical  treatises  which  were  in  accord  with  the 
minds  of  the  Dissenters.  Arber  says :  "  We  suppose  that 
we  may  rightly  call  that  printing  organization,  which  two 
members  of  the  Leyden  Church  carried  on  —  Thomas 
Brewer,  the  sleeping  partner,  finding  the  money,  and  ap- 
parently asking  no  questions ;  and  William  Brewster,  the 
working  partner,  organizing  and  managing  it  —  The  Pil- 
grim Press." 

Brewer  occupied  a  house  near  Robinson's,  in  Bell  Alley, 
and  it  was  in  the  garret  of  this  house  that  the  printing 
materials  were  kept  and  the  type  was  set.  The  sheets  of  the 
various  publications  were  run  off  at  the  presses  of  some  of 
the  Dutch  printers  to  whom  they  were  sent.  This  was  easily 
manageable  so  long  as  the  publications  were  not  too  explo- 
sive. At  length,  however,  there  was  an  outbreak  of  sov- 
ereign wrath  across  the  channel  which  compelled  attention. 
Two  books  by  David  Calderwood  — both  issued  in  1619  — 
one  entitled  "Perth  Assembly,"  the  other,  "A  Brief  Account 
of  Discipline  in  the  Scotch  Church,"  brought  such  a  storm 
of  protest  from  King  James  that  the  university  authori- 
ties were  obliged  to  call  a  halt  and  seize  the  type  from 
which  these  books  were  set  up  and  printed.  This  incident 
gave  occasion  for  voluminous  diplomatic  correspondence 
between  the  English  officials  on  the  one  side  and  the  Dutch 
and  university  officials  on  the  other  side.  The  result  was 
that  the  English  officer  was  permitted  to  take  Brewer  to 
London  on  pledge  of  the  government  that  he  should  be 
returned  in  safety.  The  fact  is  that  Brewster  was  the 
man  whom  James  wanted.  Had  he  been  able  to  lay  hands 
on  him  it  would  have  gone  ill  with  the  good  elder.  For 
more  than  a  year  he  was  kept  in  safe  hiding.  But  though 
Brewer  escaped  this  time,  he  was  forced  to  suffer  many 
persecutions  and  endure  a  long  imprisonment  afterwards. 
The  record  is  that  for  a  period  of  fourteen  years  —  or 
from  1626  to  1640  —  in  addition  to  a  heavy  money  pay- 
ment, he  was  confined  by  the  bishops  in  the  King's  Bench 


128  THE    PILGRIMS 

Prison.     He  was  released  by  petition  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  but  he  lived  only  about  a  month  after  his  liberation. 

Of  Isaac  Allerton  one  hesitates  to  write.  He  was  a  man 
who  gave  promise  of  being  of  eminent  service  to  the  colony. 
He  had  marked  ability,  executive  force,  and  at 
Allerton  the  outset  he  met  the  expectations  of  his  as- 
sociates ;  but  at  the  end  he  failed  them  in  a 
way  which  was  much  to  his  discredit,  and  his  career  was 
disappointing.  Trusted  in  the  beginning,  and  chosen  to 
conduct  many  important  negotiations,  he  became  untrust- 
worthy before  he  was  through,  and  involved  the  colony  in 
much  distress.  At  one  time  the  richest  man  in  the  colony, 
he  lapsed  into  poverty ;  and  he  died,  pitied  but  distrusted 
by  his  brethren.  It  has  been  said  of  him  that  "  he  was 
almost  the  only  one  of  the  original  Pilgrim  body,  and  the 
only  one  eminent  among  them,  who  failed  to  maintain  a 
good  reputation." 

Robert  Cushman  was  a  man  whose  action  as  agent  of  the 
exiles  at  a  certain  important  juncture  in  their  affairs  ex- 
posed him  to  sharp  criticism  at  the  time,  and 
Cushman  has  been  the  occasion  of  no  little  controversy 
since.  His  management  of  the  business  with 
the  Adventurers  created  grave  uneasiness  in  the  minds  of 
those  whom  he  represented  and  caused  serious  dissatisfac- 
tion. In  the  series  of  mishaps  which  befell  the  little  band 
in  starting  out  on  their  long  voyage  he  was  thought  by 
some  to  have  shown  the  white  feather.  Bradford,  sweet 
and  charitable  as  he  was  by  nature,  did  not  hesitate,  many 
years  afterwards,  to  put  this  intimation  on  record.  The 
intimation  may  have  had  warrant  in  the  misgiving  and 
alarm  of  the  hour;  but  a  character  so  pure  and  disinter- 
ested as  Cushman  possessed,  and  services  so  valuable  and 
conspicuous  as  those  which  he  rendered  to  the  Company 
with  which  his  name  is  evermore  to  be  identified,  ought  not 
to  be  allowed  to  rest  under  a  cloud  because  of  a  momentary 
failure  of  heart.  In  the  final  changes,  made  at  the  last 
moment,  in  the  articles  of  agreement  between  the  Pilgrims 
and  the  Company  with  which  they  were  negotiating,  Cush- 


THE    PILGRIMS  129 

man  did  exactly  the  right  thing.  He  took  responsibilities 
which  he  ought  to  have  taken.  He  had  both  the  courage 
and  the  wisdom  to  rise  to  the  situation.  He  had  received 
his  orders  from  headquarters;  and  ordinarily  it  would 
have  been  his  duty  to  carry  them  out  both  in  spirit  and 
letter ;  but  he  was  like  a  general  sent  into  a  distant  coun- 
try to  try  conclusions  with  a  shrewd  and  powerful  enemy, 
and  on  coming  into  close  range  with  him  and  discovering 
his  actual  condition  and  temper,  knows  better  what  to  do 
than  a  dozen  far-away  ministers  of  state.  At  the  psychical 
moment  Cushman  acted,  and  his  prompt  action  saved  the 
enterprise.  Fault  was  found  with  him  for  doing  what  he 
did;  and  technically  he  was  to  be  blamed;  but  from  the 
higher  standpoint  of  accepting  responsibility  and  doing  his 
larger  duty  he  was  splendidly  right.  It  is  to  the  credit  of  the 
Pilgrims  that  they  came  to  respect  and  love  him  once  more. 
It  ought  to  be  said  further  concerning  Cushman  that  to 
him  belongs  the  unique  honor  of  having  been  the  author  of 
the  first  printed  discourse  ever  delivered  in  New  England. 
Elder  Brewster  had  been  holding  forth  to  the  Pilgrims  in 
the  rude  enclosure  in  which  they  had  been  accustomed  to 
worship  for  the  better  part  of  a  year  when  Cushman 
came  over  and  gave  his  address  on  "  Self -Love  " ;  but 
Brewster's  sermons  were  not  put  in  print.  Cushman  pref- 
aced his  publication  with  a  brief  account  of  the  country 
and  the  state  of  the  Indians.  This  gave  an  added  historic 
value  to  the  discourse,  and  justly  entitles  it  to  be  consid- 
ered, as  it  generally  is,  the  beginning  of  our  American 
literature.  To  the  great  grief  and  cost  of  the  colony, 
Cushman  died  in  the  same  year  in  which  Robinson,  the  able 
leader,  the  wise  counselor,  and  the  beloved  pastor,  went  to 
his  reward. 

Samuel  Fuller  was  a  lovely  character.    In  the  hearts  of 
all  who  know  anything  of  him  the  mention  of  his  name  never 
fails  to  stir  tender  emotions.     It  is  not  known 
Fuller  where  he  was  born,  but  he  appears  to  have  gone 

from  London  to  Leyden.  He  was  a  deacon  in 
the  Leyden  church,  and  to  the  colony  a  physician  beloved. 
Like  others  of  the  Pilgrims,  Robinson  included,  he  could 

9 


130  THE    PILGRIMS 

put  things  in  a  direct  and  pungent  way  when  there  was 
call  for  so  doing,  as  seen  in  the  letter  sent  to  Carver  and 
Cushman  —  the  agents  of  the  exiles  in  London  —  to  which 
his  name,  followed  by  the  names  of  Winslow,  Bradford,  and 
Allerton,  is  affixed.  But  he  was  wise  and  true  and  tender, 
and  his  presence  among  the  people  must  have  been  a  per- 
petual benediction.  It  was  this  good  Dr.  Fuller,  who, 
under  the  direction  of  Governor  Bradford,  responded  so 
promptly  to  the  appeal  of  Governor  Endicott  when  he 
sought  help  in  a  time  of  severe  sickness  among  the  people, 
and  whose  incidental  services  as  a  peacemaker  drew  from 
the  Salem  governor  these  words,  addressed  to  the  Plymouth 
governor,  of  gratitude  and  joy:  "I  acknowledge  myself 
much  bound  to  you  for  your  kind  love  and  care  in  sending 
Mr.  Fuller  among  us,  and  rejoice  much  that  I  am  by  him 
satisfied  touching  your  judgment  of  the  outward  form  of 
God's  worship.  It  is,  as  far  as  I  can  yet  gather,  no  other 
than  is  warranted  by  the  evidence  of  truth,  and  the  same 
which  I  have  professed  and  maintained  ever  since  the  Lord 
in  mercy  revealed  himself  unto  me;  being  far  from  the 
common  reports  that  hath  been  spread  of  you  touching 
that  particular."  By  his  timely  visit  he  not  only  healed 
the  bodies  of  men  afflicted  with  scurvy,  but  he  healed  minds 
which  had  been  distempered  by  the  tongue  of  slander, 
and  made  the  relations  between  the  two  colonies  sweet  and 
healthy.  In  a  group  of  choice  spirits, '  like  Carver  and 
Bradford  and  Brewster  and  their  fellows,  Samuel  Fuller 
was  one  of  the  choicest. 

Miles  Standish,  the  redoubtable  captain,  will  always  stand 
out  as  one  of  the  conspicuous  personalities  of  this  little  band 
of  our  forefathers.  One  almost  smiles  at  the 
Standish  apparent  incongruity  of  such  a  man  in  such 
a  fellowship.  He  was  of  "  small  stature  and 
choleric  temper  " ;  but  self-reliant  and  of  dauntless  cour- 
age, fertile  in  resources  and  prompt  to  act  when  action  was 
called  for,  true-hearted  and  always  to  be  trusted  in  what 
he  promised,  sound  of  judgment  on  practical  matters  and 
a  man  of  great  and  indispensable  service  to  the  colony 
with  which  he  became  identified. 


THE    PILGRIMS  131 

He  was  certainly  the  most  picturesque  figure  in  the 
whole  group.  This  is  the  way  Longfellow  has  sketched 
him  in  the  opening  lines  of  his  "  Courtship  " : 

"  In  the  Old  Colony  days,  in  Plymouth  the  land  of  the  Pilgrims, 
To  and  fro  in  a  room  of  his  simple  and  primitive  dwelling, 
Clad  in  doublet  and  hose,  and  boots  of  Cordovan  leather, 
Strode,  with  a  martial  air,  Miles  Standish  the  Puritan  Captain. 
•  «.......• 

Short  of  stature  he  was,  but  strongly  built  and  athletic, 
Broad  in  the  shoulders,  deep-chested,  with  muscles  and  sinews  of  iron; 
Brown  as  a  nut  was  his  face,  but  his  russet  beard  was  already 
Flaked  with  patches  of  snow,  as  hedges  sometimes  in  November." 

Hubbard  says  of  him :  "  A  little  chimney  is  soon  fired ; 
so  was  the  Plymouth  Captain,  a  man  of  very  small  stature, 
yet  of  a  very  hot  and  angry  temper.  The  fire  of  his  pas- 
sion soon  kindled,  and  blown  up  into  a  flame  of  hot  words, 
might  easily  have  consumed  all,  had  it  not  been  seasonably 
quenched."  But  Justin  Winsor,  commenting  on  this,  adds 
the  proper  corrective :  "  The  account  thus  given  by  Hub- 
bard has  been  considered,  and  rightly  too,  as  graphic,  but 
flippant  and  unjust."  This  is  the  right  view.  Unques- 
tionably, he  was  of  a  temper  to  excite  some  apprehension 
in  sober  minds ;  but  he  was  a  man  of  force  and  unswerving 
loyalty  to  duty.  When  there  was  work  to  be  done  he  did 
not  stay  to  count  the  cost  nor  to  take  account  of  dangers. 
Prince  bears  high  and  worthy  testimony  to  his  character 
by  calling  him  "  one  of  those  heroes  of  antiquity  who  chose 
to  '  suffer  with  the  people  of  God  rather  than  to  enjoy  the 
pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season,'  and  '  who  through  faith  sub- 
dued kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness,  obtained  promises, 
stopped  the  mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the  power  of  fire, 
escaped  the  edge  of  the  sword,  from  weakness  were  made 
strong,  waxed  mighty  in  war,  and  turned  to  flight  armies 
of  aliens.'  " 

Nevertheless  he  was  not  the  kind  of  person  whom  we 
should  naturally  expect  to  find  voluntarily  associating 
himself  with  the  Pilgrims. 

For,  to  begin  with,  he  originated  in  a  Roman  Catholic 
family,  and  was  brought  up,  so  it  is  supposed,  under 
Roman  Catholic  influences.      Duxbury  Hall,  Lancashire, 


132  THE    PILGRIMS 

was  his  birthplace  and  early  home.  The  date  of  his  birth 
is  not  known,  but  inferences  locate  it  somewhere  in  the  year 
1584.  With  Roman  Catholic  blood  in  his  veins,  and  with 
a  Roman  Catholic  home  training,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
standing  of  the  circle  into  which  life  introduced  him,  it 
seems  not  a  little  strange  to  find  him  in  close  affiliation 
with  these  Reformers  of  Reformers  and  Protestants  of 
Protestants. 

Then  he  was  a  man  of  war.  The  fact  that  he  was  a  man 
of  war,  and  connected  with  the  division  of  the  English 
army  which  was  sent  over  into  the  Netherlands  to  assist 
in  the  terrific  conflict  which  this  heroic  people  was  waging 
against  the  aggressive  despotism  of  Spain,  goes  far,  no 
doubt,  to  explain  his  break  with  the  faith  of  his  fathers, 
and  his  revolt  against  all  forms  of  tyranny. 

Behind  all  it  seems  that  grievous  financial  wrongs  had 
been  done  him  by  members  of  his  family.  In  his  will  he 
bequeathed  to  his  son,  Alexander  Standish,  certain  landed 
properties  in  England.  These  properties  he  specified,  and 
added  that  they  had  been  given  to  him  as  right  heir  by 
lawful  descent,  but  which  had  been  "  surreptitiously  de- 
tained "  from  him.  This  practical  robbery  forced  him 
to  earn  a  livelihood  as  best  he  might.  Like  many  of  the 
high-bred  and  strenuous  youth  of  his  time  he  went  into 
the  army  and  made  soldiering  his  vocation. 

This  decision  is  what  took  him  into  Holland.  Quite 
likely  he  was  one  of  the  contingent  retained  in  the  Low 
Countries  by  England  to  garrison  the  towns  which  were 
delivered  into  her  keeping  by  Holland  and  Zealand  in 
pledge  of  the  payment  of  the  troops  which  Elizabeth  sent 
over  to  aid  them  in  the  struggle  against  Philip.  If  this 
conjecture  be  correct,  the  soldier  would  have  had  abundant 
opportunity  for  forming  acquaintance  with  his  fellow 
countrymen  who  were  living  in  exile  in  Bell  Alley. 

Just  the  same  it  seems  somewhat  queer  to  find  this  pro- 
fessional soldier,  who  is  not  known  to  have  been  a  member 
of  their  church,  and  who  appears  never  to  have  shrunk 
from  a  fight,  though  he  never  provoked  one,  enrolled  in 
the  fellowship  of  these  peace-loving  Pilgrims.  Robinson 
may  not  have  felt  this  incongruity ;   still  he  was  not  with- 


THE    PILGRIMS  133 

out  some  distrust  of  the  "  military  spirit "  of  Standish. 
In  one  of  the  last  communications  received  by  the  Ply- 
mouth brethren  from  their  beloved  pastor  at  Leyden,  and 
addressed  to  his  "  loving  and  much  beloved  friend,"  the 
governor,  he  expresses  a  keen  sorrow  over  "  the  killing  of 
those  poor  Indians  "  at  Wessagusset  by  Standish,  and  ven- 
tures to  add :  "  How  happy  a  thing  had  it  been,  if  you  had 
converted  some,  before  you  had  killed  any  " ;  for  besides 
being  a  good  thing  in  itself  this  desire  is  strengthened  by 
the  further  consideration  that  "  when  blood  is  once  begun 
to  be  shed,  it  is  seldom  staunced  of  a  long  time  after." 

This  is  a  pretty  good  all-around  anti-war  argument. 
But  the  pacific  and  humane  pastor  made  his  criticism  still 
more  pointed  by  saying :  "  Upon  this  occasion  let  me  be 
bold  to  exhort  you  seriously  to  consider  of  the  disposition 
of  your  Captain,  whom  I  love,  and  am  persuaded  the  Lord 
in  great  mercy  and  for  much  good  hath  sent  you  him,  if 
you  use  him  aright.  He  is  a  man  humble  and  meek  amongst 
you,  and  towards  all  in  ordinary  course.  But  now  if  this 
be  merely  from  an  humane  spirit,  there  is  cause  to  fear 
that  by  occasion,  especially  of  provocation,  there  may  be 
wanting  the  tenderness  of  the  life  of  man  (made  after 
God's  image)  which  is  meet." 

This  "  military  spirit "  was  no  doubt  born  in  Standish ; 
and  it  had  been  developed  and  trained,  as  we  have  seen,  by 
actual  experience.  It  was  well  for  Bradford  and  his  asso- 
ciates to  be  on  guard  against  it.  But  for  all  this,  and  in 
spite  of  the  misfit  which,  at  first  flush,  he  seems,  Standish 
was  of  immense  value  to  the  Pilgrims.  Both  by  instinct 
and  discipline  he  was  thoroughly  fitted  for  the  part  he 
was  to  play  in  the  unfolding  drama  of  the  life  and  purpose 
of  this  epoch-making  company.  They  do  well  to  guard 
with  sacred  care  "  the  sword  of  Damascus  "  which  he 
"  fought  with  in  Flanders  "  among  the  priceless  heirlooms 
at  Plymouth.  It  was  also  a  fit  thing  to  rear  a  monument 
to  his  memory  in  the  town  which  bears  the  name  of  his 
ancestral  seat,  and  on  the  hill  near  which  he  lived  and  died, 
and  that  longer  than  the  monument  will  commemorate  the 
rank  and  fame  of  this  heroic  military  leader. 


134  THE    PILGRIMS 


VIII 


What  the  exiles  were  doing,  aside  from  earning  their 
daily  bread,  during  the  years  they  spent  in  Ley  den,  has  in 
part  been  intimated  already.     Brewster,  with 
Books  Brewer  to  back  him  through  what  Arber  has 

printed  and  called  The  Pilgrim  Press,  was  printing  books, 
controver-  Attention  has  been  called,  on  a  previous  page, 
sies  stirred  t0  ^wo  of  these  books  which  were  published,  and, 
UP  by  the  indirect  and  secret  methods  then  neces- 

sary, distributed  to  the  consternation  and 
wrath  of  the  powers  that  then  were  over  in  the  dominion  of 
King  James.  These  English  Separatists  consented  to  put 
in  type  copy  brought  to  them  by  Scotch  Presbyterians  for 
the  reasons  that  the  bodies  had  a  common  foe.  Puritanism 
under  whatever  banner  was  forced  to  fight  for  its  rights; 
and  assaults  made  anywhere  were  assaults  in  which  all 
lovers  of  truth  were  vitally  concerned,  and  victories  gained 
anywhere  were  victories  in  which  all  lovers  of  truth  could 
rej  oice. 

To  a  couple  of  the  first  books  issued  by  Brewster  he  gave 
his  name  in  the  imprint.  After  this,  for  obvious  reasons, 
his  name  was  withheld.  It  has  to  be  by  other  means,  there- 
fore, than  information  given  on  the  title-page  that  the 
sources  from  which  the  books  were  sent  out  into  the  world 
by  The  Pilgrim  Press  can  be  determined.  In  all  there  were 
probably  not  less  than  fifteen  different  publications  which 
found  their  way  into  the  hands  of  eager  readers  through 
the  agency  of  Brewster  at  Leyden.  But  in  this  business 
great  care  had  to  be  taken,  even  under  the  shelter  of  Dutch 
toleration,  to  avoid  detection.  At  length,  as  has  been 
stated,  the  university  authorities  had  to  yield  to  remon- 
strances from  London  and  put  a  stop  to  this  issuing  of 
books  so  distasteful  and  so  threatening  to  the  authority  of 
kings  and  the  supremacy  of  bishops.  By  royal  and 
ecclesiastical  dignitaries  alike,  outside  of  the  Netherlands, 
Brewster  was  regarded  as  a  dynamiter  who  at  any  moment 
might  scatter  thrones  and  priestly  assumptions  into  a 
thousand  fragments.      The  Stuart  sovereign  and  Arch- 


THE    PILGRIMS  135 

bishop  Laud  were  not  wholly  without  warrant  for  their 
fears.  Give  truth  free  course  and  in  the  end  it  is  sure  to 
blow  up  all  lies  and  pretensions.  Get  justice  fairly  into 
the  minds  of  men  and  injustice  goes  to  the  wall. 


IX 

Robinson  was  drawn  into  a  service  more  open  to  the 
world.     In  addition  to  preaching  and  exercising  pastoral 

care  over  his  flock,  he  came  into  close  relations 
Bobinson  wftn  Leyden's  distinguished  educational  insti- 
in  great  tution,  and  through  this  relation  secured  a 
debate  memorable  prominence.     As   Thomas   Brewer 

had  done  several  months  before  him,  and  as 
John  Greenwood  did  a  decade  after  him,  Robinson  was 
matriculated  in  the  university,  though  this  step  was  not 
taken  till  he  had  been  in  Ley  den  six  years.  This  gave  him 
a  place  at  the  front  and  launched  him  into  the  thick  of  a 
strenuous  wrestle.  Soon  after  it  was  founded,  Arminius 
took  a  course  of  six  years  at  this  seat  of  learning,  and 
the  closing  six  years  of  his  life  were  devoted  to  the  duties 
of  a  professorship  in  this  same  great  school.  Arminius 
died  only  a  few  months  after  the  Pilgrims  arrived  at 
Ley  den,  and  while  the  controversy  over  his  views  was  still 
hot.  But  Episcopius,  the  favorite  and  faithful  pupil  of 
Arminius,  was  in  the  full  flush  of  his  manly  vigor  and  the 
stout  defender  of  the  doctrines  of  his  venerated  teacher. 
Professor  Poliander  was  the  sturdy  champion  of  the  oppo- 
site view.  Robinson  held  to  the  Calvinistic  side  in  the 
controversy,  and  in  virtue  of  his  ability,  which  had  now 
secured  recognition  in  intelligent  and  influential  circles, 
he  was  put  forward  by  Poliander,  the  foremost  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  great  Genevan  in  the  university  and  in  the  city, 
to  defend  their  positions.  Robinson  entered  on  the  de- 
bate with  the  advantage  that  he  was  familiar  with  the 
teachings  and  methods  of  both  instructors  —  Episcopius 
and  Poliander.  As  was  natural,  the  divinity  section  of  the 
school  was  divided  into  two  hostile  camps.  Things  had 
come  to  such  a  pass  of  prejudice  and  bitterness,  so  Brad- 


136  THE    PILGRIMS 

ford  tells  us,  that  "  few  of  the  disciples  "  of  one  professor 
"  would  hear  the  other  teach."  "  But  Mr.  Robinson  .  .  . 
went  constantly  to  hear  their  readings,  and  heard  the  one  as 
well  as  the  other ;  by  which  reason  he  was  so  well  grounded 
in  the  controversy,  and  saw  the  force  of  all  their  arguments, 
and  knew  the  shifts  of  the  adversary,  and  being  himself 
very  able  none  was  better  fitted  to  buckle  with  them."  It 
ought  to  be  said  in  justice  to  his  modesty  that  Robinson  was 
not  overforward  for  this  conspicuousness,  but  was  pressed 
into  the  service.  "  He  was  loath,  being  a  stranger,"  to 
advance  to  such  a  dispute,  "  yet  the  other  "  —  Poliander  — 
"  did  importune  him,  and  told  him  that  such  was  the  abil- 
ity and  nimbleness  of  the  adversary,  that  the  truth  would 
suffer  if  he  did  not  help  them."  In  continuing  the  account 
Bradford  adds :  "  So  he  condescended,  and  prepared  him- 
self against  the  time;  and  when  the  day  came,  the  Lord 
did  so  help  him  to  defend  the  truth  and  foil  this  adversary 
as  he  put  him  to  an  apparent  non-plus  in  this  great  and 
public  audience.  And  the  like  he  did  two  or  three  times." 
This  skill  and  success  in  debate  "  caused  many  to  praise 
God  that  the  truth  had  so  famous  victory."  It  further- 
more secured  for  the  hero  of  the  contest  "  much  honor  and 
respect  from  those  learned  men  and  others  which  loved  the 
truth." 

This  incident  in  the  career  of  Robinson  was  brought 
forward  by  Bradford,  it  will  be  remembered,  to  refute  the 
slander  that  the  Dutch  wanted  to  get  rid  of  the  exiles. 
Most  admirably  does  it  serve  that  purpose;  but  it  also 
goes  to  show  what  the  wise  and  able  leader  of  the  exiles 
was  doing  during  a  portion  of  the  Leyden  period,  and  on 
what  profound  themes  he  was  exercising  his  mind.  He 
was  alive  to  the  burning  questions  of  the  hour;  and  both 
his  abilities  and  his  attainments  were  of  an  order  to  make 
a  deep  impression  on  thoughtful  men. 


But  the  appearance  of  Robinson  in  public  debate  on  a 
religious  question  of  immediate  and  absorbing  interest 
simply  suggests  rather  than  tells  the  story  of  his  intellec- 


JOHN    ROBINSONS    HOUSE,    LEYDEN,    HOLLAND 


THE    PILGRIMS  137 

tual  activity.  Through  all  those  years  in  Holland  he  was 
doing  many  things  in  the  same  line.  In  earnest  brain  work, 
as  well  as  in  heroic  and  self-sacrificing  deeds, 
Further  ac-  ne  was  facing  the  religious  issues  of  his  age, 
tivity  of  anj  doing  his  best  to  throw  light  on  the  prob- 
Bobinson  iems  iQ  \ye  solved.  If  we  turn  to  the  chronolog- 
ical index  of  his  works,  it  will  be  seen  that  more 
than  half  of  the  three  volumes  which  comprise  his  pub- 
lished works  was  given  to  the  world  within  the  years 
1609—1619  inclusive.  All  of  the  second  volume  on  "  Jus- 
tification of  Separatism  from  the  Church  of  England,"  and 
the  larger  section  of  the  third  volume,  including  such  im- 
portant contributions  to  the  vital  thought  of  his  times  as 
"  Christian  Fellowship,"  "  Religious  Communion,"  the 
"  Exercise  of  Prophecy,"  and  a  "  Just  and  Necessary 
Apology,"  fall  into  this  decade.  While  the  members  of  his 
little  flock  were  busy  at  their  humble  tasks  day  by  day 
earning  a  livelihood  for  themselves  and  their  wives  and  their 
children,  their  faithful  and  beloved  pastor  was  in  his 
study,  pondering  the  deep  things  of  God  and  trying  to 
get  the  "  more  light "  which  had  broken  in  upon  his  own 
mind  from  the  divine  Word  to  shed  its  illumination  into 
their  minds. 

We  think  of  Robinson  as  genuinely  conscientious  and 
sincere,  as  loving  and  considerate,  as  wise  with  the  wisdom 
which  is  born  of  a  high  moral  purpose  and 
Bobinson's  tenderness  of  heart,  and  withal  as  never  want- 
high  order  [ng  m  loyalty  to  truth  and  the  courage  of  his 
of  mind  convictions.  But  he  was  more  than  this.  He 
was  a  man  of  rare  intellect.  He  had  large 
mental  faculties.  He  saw  things ;  he  knew  things ;  and  he 
was  master  of  the  art  of  putting  things  in  that  rugged 
English  of  his  day  so  that  others  could  see  and  know  them. 
Not  yet  have  even  his  followers,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
world  at  large,  come  into  a  full  and  proper  appreciation  of 
this  rare  man.  Dr.  O.  S.  Davis  has  rendered  a  valuable 
service  to  religious  literature  and  to  the  faith  and  polity 
of  which  the  Pilgrim  pastor  was  the  exponent,  in  his  book 
on  "  John  Robinson."  But  his  closing  chapter  on 
"  The  Man  and  His  Place  in  History  "  can  hardly  be  ac- 


138  THE    PILGRIMS 

cepted  as  an  adequate  estimate  of  the  high  intellectual  abil- 
ities of  Robinson.  He  was  larger-brained  than  the  type 
of  man  there  drawn.  He  was  remarkable  for  the  whiteness 
of  his  soul,  and  the  sweetness  of  his  disposition,  and  the 
high  order  of  his  courage,  and  the  superb  dominancy  of 
his  conscience;  but  he  was  also  remarkable  for  the  lofty 
qualities  of  his  mind.  His  fine  character  and  his  patient 
submission  to  a  lowly  lot  in  life  have  largely  obscured  the 
vision  of  writers  dealing  with  him  to  his  superior  intel- 
lectual capacities.  Both  in  natural  endowments,  however, 
and  in  the  keen  edge  which  he  put  upon  his  mind  by  study 
and  reflection,  this  quiet  pastor  of  a  small  flock  deserves 
eminent  rank.  His  thinking  was  pitched  to  a  high  key  for 
the  reason  that  his  thinking  powers  were  of  a  high  sort. 
He  reached  logical  results  because  he  had  a  mind  capable 
of  moving  straight  on  from  sound  premise  to  sound  con- 
clusion. It  is  time  that  suitable  recognition  were  ac- 
corded to  his  intellectual  gifts,  and  the  world  made  to 
see  that  in  mental  as  well  as  moral  endowments  this 
English  Separatist  —  forced  into  exile  by  the  heartless 
tyranny  of  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  rulers  of  the 
country  he  loved  —  was  fitted  to  represent  and  direct  a 
movement  which  meant  so  much  at  the  hour,  and  which 
with  each  unfolding  century  has  come  to  mean  more  and 
more  to  religion,  to  political  freedom,  and  to  the  progress 
of  Christian  civilization  throughout  the  world. 


XI 

But  in  addition  to  what  has  been  indicated  already 
what  were  the  Pilgrims  doing  at  Ley  den? 

For  one  thing  they  were  establishing,  or  reestablishing, 
their  simple  homes  and  cultivating  their  domestic  virtues. 

They  were  marrying  and  giving  in  marriage, 
Marriages      an(j  to  the  best  of  their  ability  bringing  up 

their  children  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of 
the  Lord.  Accepting  the  results  obtained  by  painstaking 
examinations  of  original  and  official  documents,  made  by 
such  competent  investigators  as  George  Sumner,  a  brother 


THE    PILGRIMS  139 

of  Charles  Sumner,  Hon.  Henry  C.  Murphy,  at  one  time 
United  States  Minister  at  The  Hague,  Dr.  Griffis,  and 
the  two  Dexters,  who  put  a  large  amount  of  time  and  not 
a  little  expense  into  these  researches,  it  is  found  that  from 
1609,  in  the  spring  of  which  year  the  Pilgrims  reached 
Leyden,  to  1620,  the  year  of  the  departure  —  both  years 
included  —  forty-six  marriages  were  registered.  This,  as 
one  of  these  authors  has  said,  "  is  a  pretty  fair  record  for 
a  church  company  never  at  any  one  time  numbering  over 
probably  three  hundred  communicants  "  to  make  for  itself 
in  a  little  more  than  ten  years.  Children  were  born  into 
these  homes  of  the  Pilgrims.  It  has  been  conjectured  that 
there  were  not  less  than  twenty  children  in  the  company 
when  the  removal  was  made  from  Amsterdam,  and  that 
"  about  one  hundred  were  born  or  lived  a  longer  or  shorter 
space  in  Holland."  Family  life,  like  the  church  life,  went 
on  in  an  orderly  and  happy  way,  and  the  rewards  of 
industry  and  economy  were  enough  to  give  these  strangers 
in  a  strange  city  a  tolerable  measure  of  prosperity  and 
comfort. 

Within  the  dates  just  named  —  1609-1620  —  thirty- 
three  members  of  the  colony  became  citizens  of  Leyden. 
Doubtless  there  were  two  motives  for  this  step. 
Citizenship  Qne  was  that  these  men,  or  some  of  them  at 
least,  wanted  to  be  in  closer  affiliation  with  the 
people  about  them  than  was  possible  if  they  simply  stood 
off  and  maintained  an  alien  attitude.  They  were  under  the 
shelter  of  the  government,  and  they  were  more  than  will- 
ing to  show  their  appreciation  of  the  liberty  and  protec- 
tion they  were  enjoying  by  becoming  subjects  of  the 
government.  Another  motive  was  self-interest.  Manu- 
facturing along  various  lines  was  carried  on  extensively  in 
Leyden.  The  Pilgrims  had  learned  trades  by  which  to 
make  their  living.  Much  of  manufacturing  business  was 
in  the  hands  of  guilds.  The  guilds  of  those  days  were  in 
some  respects  the  labor  unions  of  our  days.  One  had  to 
belong  to  them  to  get  on.  But  to  be  a  member  of  a  guild 
it  was  necessary  to  be  a  citizen.  The  bearing  of  this  is 
obvious.  With  their  shrewdness,  their  self-respect,  their 
determination,  and  in  their  circumstances  of  need,  these 


140  THE   PILGRIMS 

exiles  naturally  availed  themselves  of  any  help  which 
promised  to  make  it  easier  for  them  to  earn  an  honest 
living. 

The  Pilgrims  must  have  taken  a  warm  interest  in  the 
religious  questions  which  were  then  agitating  the  minds  of 
the  people  of  Holland.  They  were  religious 
Warm  in-  men<  They  were  where  they  were  because  of 
terest  in  their  religious  convictions.  We  know  the  topics 
religious  which  were  uppermost  in  the  thoughts  of  Rob- 
questions  inson,  and  the  extent  to  which  he  became  in- 
volved in  the  theological  controversies  of  the 
times.  It  was  Protestantism  against  Catholicism;  it  was 
Calvinism  against  Lutherism;  it  was  rigid  Calvinism 
against  moderate  Calvinism;  and  the  whole  land  was  a 
battle-ground  of  warring  opinions.  In  the  circle  of  their 
homes,  at  their  daily  tasks,  when  they  met  by  the  way,  on 
the  Sabbath,  these  subjects  were  in  their  minds  and  on 
their  tongues.  Meditating  on  these  great  themes  day  and 
night,  and  discussing  them  constantly  one  with  another, 
they  became  clear  in  their  views  and  strong  in  their  con- 
victions, and  at  the  same  time  broader  and  more  tol- 
erant in  their  sympathies.  It  admits  of  no  question  that 
Robinson  made  progress  with  the  years,  and  that  he  was 
further  on  and  more  catholic  in  his  ideas  of  Christian  fel- 
lowship at  the  end  than  at  the  beginning  of  his  leadership. 


XII 

But  there  was  something  else  of  much  importance  which 
these  Pilgrims  were  doing  at  Leyden.  They  were  getting 
their  ecclesiastical  polity  out  of  gristle  into 
Church  bone.     They  were  defining  to  their  own  minds 

polity  wftn  an  increasing  distinctness  the  system  of 

church  government  which  they  had  adopted, 
and  habituating  themselves  to  the  use  of  this  system  in  the 
practical  management  of  church  affairs. 

At  Scrooby  these  Separatists  had  taken  their  stand  for 
independence  and  self-government.  It  was  once  for  all. 
Come  what  might  in  cost  or  pain,  there  was  to  be  no  flinch- 


THE    PILGRIMS  141 

ing.  At  Plymouth  they  were  to  work  out  their  scheme  on 
a  large  scale,  and  demonstrate  by  a  success  beyond  dispute 
the  practicability  of  this  method  of  maintaining  order  and 
promoting  fellowship  and  securing  efficiency  in  churches. 
But  at  Leyden  the  task  was  to  perfect  the  system  and  get 
it  thoroughly  domesticated  in  the  minds  of  this  little 
group  who  had  become  adherents  of  the  Congregational 
Way. 

This  was  an  undertaking  not  altogether  easy.  At  the 
outset  Robert  Browne  had  a  clear  conception  of  the  sys- 
tem both  in  respect  to  the  autonomy  of  the  local  church 
and  the  fellowship  of  the  whole  body  of  churches  similarly 
organized  and  conducted.  He  had  difficulty  in  working 
the  plan ;  but  his  notion  of  the  plan  was  lucid. 

The  very  simplicity  of  the  idea,  however,  seemed  to  make 
it  hard  for  some  people  to  apprehend  and  apply  it.  It 
involved  the  use  of  too  little  machinery  and  implied  too 
much  confidence  in  the  sanctified  common  sense  of  the  laity. 
The  notion  advanced  by  Cartwright  and  taken  up  by 
Barrowe  and  adopted  in  one  modification  of  it  by  Johnson 
and  in  another  by  Ainsworth,  that  church  government  is 
incomplete  and  liable  to  end  in  serious  disaster  without  the 
balance-wheel  of  the  eldership,  seemed  to  be  pretty  thor- 
oughly ingrained  in  the  thought  of  large  numbers  of  the 
Separatists.  It  fell  to  the  lot  of  Robinson  and  his  asso- 
ciates in  the  faith  to  work  clear  of  this  notion,  and  show  to 
the  world  that  elders  are  not  essential  factors  in  the  man- 
agement of  churches,  and  that  order  and  prosperity  in 
churches  do  not  depend  on  the  incorporation  of  these  offi- 
cials into  the  system  of  church  government. 

There  was  one  elder  in  the  Leyden  church;  but  so  far 
as  appears  there  was  only  one.  When  Brewster  went  to 
America,  he  left  the  eldership  vacant  and  no  successor  to 
the  office  was  ever  chosen.  Nor  was  his  function  as  elder 
so  much  to  rule  in  an  authoritative  way  over  the  people  of 
God  as  to  be  what  Dr.  Morton  Dexter  has  called  a  moral 
leader  and  adviser.  Bradford  speaks  of  him  as  "  an  assist- 
ant "  to  Robinson,  and  it  was  for  this  reason  that  he  was 
chosen  to  be  an  elder.  In  this  office,  no  doubt,  he  con- 
tinued to  be  "  an  assistant,"   and  not  an  authoritative 


142  THE    PILGRIMS 

ruler.  Under  the  circumstances,  to  cut  loose  from  the  idea 
of  a  select  body  of  men  in  whom  the  power  to  control  the 
church  is  to  be  lodged  was  a  large  achievement. 

But  this  is  what  the  Leyden  Separatists  under  the  guid- 
ance of  Robinson  succeeded  in  doing.  Alien  elements  were 
eliminated  from  the  system,  or  put  in  the  way 
Attempt  0f  elimination,  and  Congregationalism  in  its 
successful  simplicity  was  set  up  and  operated;  and  when 
Brewster  and  Bradford  and  the  rest  of  them 
came  to  America  they  brought  with  them  not  only  a  theory 
of  self-government  for  churches,  but  an  actual  experience 
of  self-government  for  churches  on  which  they  could  fall 
back  with  confidence. 

They  could  fall  back  on  this  experience  with  the  more 
confidence  because  the  system  had  worked  so  well.  How 
beautiful  is  Bradford's  testimony  to  the  peace  and  orderli- 
ness of  that  little  Leyden  flock.  "  Being  thus  settled,  they 
continued  many  years  in  a  comfortable  condition,  enj  oying 
much  sweet  and  delightful  society  and  spiritual  comfort 
together  in  the  ways  of  God  under  the  able  ministry 
and  prudent  government  of  Mr.  John  Robinson  and  Mr. 
William  Brewster.  ...  So  as  they  grew  in  knowledge  and 
other  gifts  and  graces  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  lived  to- 
gether in  peace,  and  love,  and  holiness  .  .  .  and  if  at  any 
time  any  differences  arose,  or  offenses  broke  out  (as  it 
cannot  be,  but  some  time  there  will,  even  amongst  the  best 
of  men)  they  were  ever  so  met  with,  and  nipped  in  the  head 
betimes,  or  otherwise  so  well  composed,  as  still  love,  peace, 
and  communion  was  continued ;  or  else  the  church  purged 
of  those  that  were  incurable  and  incorrigible,  when  after 
much  patience  used,  no  other  means  would  serve,  which 
seldom  came  to  pass.  .  .  .  Such  was  the  true  piety,  the 
humble  zeal,  and  fervent  love  of  this  people  (while  they 
lived  together)  towards  God  and  his  ways,  and  the  single 
heartiness  and  sincere  affection  one  towards  another,  that 
they  came  as  near  the  primitive  pattern  of  the  first 
churches,  as  any  other  church  of  these  later  times  have 
done,  according  to  their  rank  and  quality." 

To  the  same  effect  is  the  splendid  tribute  paid  by  Robin- 
son himself  to  the  wise  self-control  and  high  Christian  char- 


THE    PILGRIMS  143 

acter  of  this  ecclesiastical  democracy  in  his  extinguishing 
reply  to  Richard  Bernard :  "  If  ever  I  saw  the  beauty  of 
Sion,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  filling  his  tabernacle,  it 
hath  been  in  the  manifestations  of  the  divers  graces  of  God 
in  the  church,  in  that  heavenly  harmony  and  comely  order, 
wherein  by  the  grace  of  God  we  are  set  and  walk ;  wherein, 
if  your  eyes  had  but  seen  the  brethren's  sober  and  modest 
carriage  one  towards  another,  their  humble  and  willing 
submission  to  their  guides  in  the  Lord,  their  tender  com- 
passion towards  the  weak,  their  fervent  zeal  against  scan- 
dalous offenders,  and  their  long-suffering  towards  all,  you 
would,  I  am  persuaded,  change  your  mind,  and  be  com- 
pelled to  take  up  your  parable,  and  bless,  where  you  pur- 
posed to  curse." 


XIII 

Life  at  Leyden  was  hard,  but  it  was  educational.  Under 
the  severe  discipline  of  it  the  Pilgrims  were  confirmed  in 

their  purpose  to  maintain  their  views,  hold 
Life  at  together,   and  go  straight  on.     Without  the 

Leyden  experience  of  those  testing  years  in  Holland 

helpful  they  would  not  have  been  fitted  for  the  "  great 

and  honorable  actions  "  of  the  subsequent  years 
in  America,  which  had  to  be  "  both  enter  prised  and  over- 
come with  answerable  courages."  They  were  stronger, 
they  were  wiser,  they  were  in  every  way  better  for  their 
sojourn  and  intercourse  with  the  Dutch.  From  the  incep- 
tion of  the  movement  at  Scrooby  to  the  consummation  of 
it  at  Plymouth,  the  providence  of  God  is  nowhere  and  in 
nothing  more  marked  than  in  leading  the  advocates  of  a 
free  church  and  founders  of  a  free  state  through  a  land 
whose  people  had  illustrated  the  loftiest  heroism  and  made 
every  sacrifice  demanded  of  them  in  order  to  rid  their 
country  of  ecclesiastical  and  civil  tyranny. 


VIII 
LEAVING    LEYDEN 


Coming  events  of  serious  importance  began  to  cast  their  shadows  before 
during  1617.  Gradually  it  was  becoming  evident  to  the  Pilgrims  that 
Holland  did  not,  and  could  not,  afford  the  sort  of  refuge  and  opportunity 
which  they  desired.  Reluctant  though  they  were  to  emigrate  again,  and 
uncertain  though  they  were  where  to  go,  they  seem  to  have  decided  this 
year  that  their  very  existence  as  a  church,  and  even  as  a  body  of  English 
people,  depended  upon  some  such  step.  —  The  Dexteks. 

I  persuade  myself,  never  people  upon  earth  lived  more  lovingly,  and 
parted  more  sweetly  than  we,  the  Church  at  Leyden,  did.  Not  rashly,  in  a 
distracted  humour;  but,  upon  joint  and  serious  deliberation,  often  seeking 
the  mind  of  God,  by  fasting  and  prayer:  whose  gracious  presence  we  not 
only  found  with  us;  but  his  blessing  upon  us  from  that  time  to  this  instant: 
to  the  indignation  of  our  adversaries,  the  admiration  of  strangers,  and  the 
exceeding  consolation  of  ourselves.  —  Edwabd  Winslow. 

So  they  left  the  goodly  and  pleasant  city,  which  had  been  their  resting 
place  near  twelve  years ;  but  they  knew  they  were  pilgrims,  and  looked  not 
much  on  those  things,  but  lift  up  their  eyes  to  the  heavens,  their  dearest 
country,  and  quieted  their  spirits.  —  William  Bradford. 

Now  sails  are  ready  as  the  wings 

Of  rising  bird,  outstretched  for  flight; 
Around  the  keel  the  water  sings, 

And  breezes  to  the  sea  invite. 
Now,  gathered  here, 

The  Pilgrims  kneel  in  prayer. 

Isaac  Bassett  Choate. 


VIII 

LEAVING   LEYDEN 

THE  Pilgrims,  through  their  daily  employments,  had 
close  connection  with  the  people  of  Leyden,  and  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  they  derived  much  satisfaction 
and  help  from  the  sweet  Christian  fellowship  which  they 
were  permitted  to  enjoy  with  them  while  residents  of  their 
city ;  but  they  were  English  —  English  to  the  core  —  and 
they  never  struck  any  very  deep  roots  in  Dutch  soil.  They 
were  among  the  Dutch,  but  they  were  not  of  them.  Their 
thoughts  were  "  long,  long  thoughts."  They  were  not  at 
home  in  their  feelings,  and  they  were  not  satisfied  to  re- 
main where  they  were.  They  were  not  quite  able  to  inter- 
pret it,  but  there  was  a  voice  of  destiny  sounding  in  their 
souls.  The  spirit  of  prophecy  was  upon  them.  Their 
young  men  saw  visions,  and  their  old  men  dreamed  dreams. 
Something  afar  beckoned  them.  They  knew  they  were 
pilgrims,  and  they  kept  girded  for  their  journey.  They 
could  not  escape  the  service  for  which  God  had  raised  them 
up.  They  were  very  grateful  for  the  shelter  which  the  free 
institutions  and  the  liberty-loving  spirit  of  the  citizens  of 
the  Netherlands  afforded  them  from  the  storm  which  beat 
so  furiously  upon  them  in  the  home-land,  and  for  the  op- 
portunity cheerfully  granted  to  earn  their  daily  bread  and 
worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  con- 
sciences; but  they  could  not  think  of  a  final  abode  in 
Holland.  As  a  matter  of  fact  no  very  serious  efforts  were 
ever  made  looking  to  this  end. 


148  THE    PILGRIMS 


As  early  as  1617,  or  three  years  before  the  migration 
actually  occurred,  the  Pilgrims  began  to  look  the  question 

of  removal  squarely  in  the  face.  Other  ques- 
Removal  tions,  of  course,  such  as  the  country  to  which 
contem-  they  should  go,  and  the  auspices  under  which 

plated  their  change  of  residence  should  be  attempted, 

were  mixed  in  with  this  preliminary  one  of 
going  or  not  going;  and  the  discussion  would  necessarily 
assume,  not  only  an  earnest  tone,  but  a  wide  range.  But 
the  leading  question  was  whether  they  —  those  English 
exiles  —  should  stay  where  they  were,  and  work  out  their 
destiny  as  best  they  might,  or  go  elsewhere.  This  question 
was  soon  settled.  There  were  various  opinions  on  the  sub- 
ject. It  was  a  matter,  however,  between  themselves;  and 
matters  between  themselves,  through  prayer  and  confer- 
ence and  mutual  love,  were  amicably  and  in  general 
promptly  adjusted.  The  obstacles  to  removal,  the  sacri- 
fices which  would  have  to  be  made  and  the  hardship  which 
would  have  to  be  endured  if  a  removal  were  attempted,  were 
clearly  and  impressively  stated.  "It  was  answered,"  so 
Bradford  tells  us,  "  that  all  great  and  honorable  actions 
are  accompanied  with  great  difficulties,  and  must  be  both 
enterprised  and  overcome  with  answerable  courages.  It 
was  granted  the  dangers  were  great,  but  not  desperate; 
the  difficulties  were  many,  but  not  invincible.  .  .  .  True  it 
was,  that  such  attempts  were  not  to  be  made  and  under- 
taken without  good  ground  and  reason  —  not  rashly  or 
lightly,  as  many  have  done,  for  curiosity  and  hope  of  gain. 
But  their  condition  was  not  ordinary ;  their  ends  were  good 
and  honorable,  their  calling  lawful  and  urgent,  and  there- 
fore they  might  expect  the  blessing  of  God  in  their  pro- 
ceeding. Yea,  though  they  should  lose  their  lives  in  this 
action,  yet  might  they  have  comfort  in  the  same,  and  their 
endeavors  would  be  honorable."  Hence  "  it  was  fully  con- 
cluded by  the  major  part  to  put  this  design  in  execution, 
and  to  prosecute  it  by  the  best  means  they  could."  It  was 
a  brave  conclusion,  and  one  which  called  for  heroic  self- 
denial,  resolute  purpose,  and  a  mighty  faith  in  God;   but 


THE    PILGRIMS  149 

it  was  an  act  in  line  with  the  history  and  prophetic  of  the 
future  of  these  dauntless  Pilgrims. 

These  statements  are  general,  and  have  to  do  with  the 
matter  of  removal  in  all  its  bearings.  Before .  reaching 
them,  however,  in  his  history,  Bradford  puts  on  record 
the  reasons  for  the  action  of  the  Pilgrims  on  this  one 
specific  question  of  going  or  not  going.  For  substance, 
these  reasons  are  as  follows: 

First,  they  could  not  hope  to  grow  to  any  considerable 
extent  in  the  circumstances  in  which  they  found  themselves 

in  Leyden.  "  The  hardness  of  the  place  and 
No  chance  country  "  were  such  "  as  few  in  comparison 
for  growth     would  come  to  them,  and  fewer  that  would  bide 

it  out,  and  continue  with  them.  For  many  that 
came  to  them,  and  many  more  that  desired  to  be  with  them, 
could  not  endure  the  great  labor  and  hard  fare,  with  other 
inconveniences  which  they  underwent  and  were  contented 
with." 

Second,  the  leaders  in  the  movement  were  getting  old  — 
some  of  them  prematurely  so  in  consequence  of  their  hard 

toils ;  and  if  the  body  they  represented  was 
Securing  a  to  be  kept  together,  and  the  influence  of  their 
future  protest  in  behalf  of  religious  freedom  was  to 

be  perpetuated,  there  must  be  removal.  In  no 
other  way  could  their  future  be  secured.  "  The  people 
generally  bore  all  these  difficulties  very  cheerfully,  and  with 
a  resolute  courage,  being  in  the  best  and  strength  of  their 
years,  yet  old  age  began  to  steal  on  many  of  them,  ...  so 
as  it  was  not  only  probably  thought,  but  apparently  seen, 
that  within  a  few  years  more  they  would  be  in  danger  to 
scatter,  by  necessities  pressing  them,  or  sink  under  their 
burden,  or  both." 

Third,  there  was  the  thought  of  the  moral  and  spiritual 
safety  of  their  children.     A  wise  solicitude  for  those  who 

are  to  succeed  them  and  bear  their  names  in 
Welfare  ^e  WOrld  has  always  been  a  characteristic  of 
of  their  godly  parents.     The  words  of  Bradford  show 

children         now  tender  and  profound  was  the  interest  which 

these  devout  fathers  and  mothers  took  in  their 
off  spring.    "  For  many  of  their  children,  that  were  of  best 


150  THE    PILGRIMS 

dispositions  and  gracious  inclinations,  having  learned  to 
bear  the  yoke  in  their  youth,  and  willing  to  bear  part  of 
their  parents'  burden,  were  oftentimes  so  oppressed  with 
their  heavy  labors,  though  their  minds  were  free  and  will- 
ing, yet  their  bodies  bowed  under  the  weight  of  the  same, 
and  became  decrepit  in  their  early  youth,  the  vigor  of 
nature  being  consumed  in  the  very  bud,  as  it  were.  But 
that  which  was  more  lamentable,  and  of  all  sorrows  most 
heavy  to  be  borne,  was  that  many  of  their  children,  by  these 
occasions,  and  the  great  licentiousness  of  youth  in  that 
country,  and  the  manifold  temptations  of  the  place,  were 
drawn  away  by  evil  examples  into  extravagant  and  danger- 
ous courses,  getting  the  reins  off  their  necks,  and  departing 
from  their  parents.  Some  became  soldiers,  others  took  upon 
them  far  voyages  by  sea,  and  others  some  worse  courses, 
tending  to  dissoluteness  and  the  danger  of  their  souls,  to 
the  great  grief  of  their  parents  and  dishonor  of  God.  So 
that  they  saw  their  posterity  would  be  in  danger  to  de- 
generate and  be  corrupted." 

The  statement  in  the  foregoing  paragraph  that  "  some 
became  soldiers  "  had  a  special  significance  at  the  time  and 

in  the  circumstances  in  which  it  was  made.  On 
War  at  ^  one  han(j  the  truce  between  the  Dutch  and 

hand  tne  Spaniards,  which  had  been  in  force  since 

1609,  was  approaching  its  termination,  and 
hostilities  might  break  out  again  with  all  the  old  fierceness 
at  any  moment  after  1619.  On  the  other  hand,  the  long 
and  bloody  conflict,  which  was  to  be  known  in  history  as 
the  Thirty  Years'  War,  had  already  begun,  and  was  ra- 
ging with  the  cruelty  and  destructiveness  of  an  irresistible 
conflagration  in  Bohemia.  The  signs  were  ominous.  The 
clouds  in  the  political  sky  were  black  with  threats.  The 
hour  seemed  to  be  hastening  when  Protestantism  and  Ca- 
tholicism throughout  Europe  were  to  be  involved  in  a  death- 
struggle.  All  up  and  down  the  lands  young  men  would 
be  sucked  into  the  vortex  of  battle,  and  their  lives  would  be 
sacrificed,  or  their  morals  would  be  corrupted,  and  their 
whole  future  blighted.  With  the  smell  of  powder  in  the 
air,  and  the  tramp  of  approaching  armies  and  the  thunder 
of  guns  falling  on  their  ears,  it  is  no  wonder  that  those 


THE    PILGRIMS  151 

Leyden  exiles,  who  laid  so  much  stress  on  pure  and  upright 
character,  and  to  whom  their  cause  was  so  sacred,  should 
think  of  their  sons  and  their  future  welfare. 

Fourth,  the  ardent  desire  these  exiles  had  to  spread 
abroad  a  knowledge  of  Christ  and  to  aid  in  building  up 
his  kingdom.  Or,  to  give  this,  too,  in  Brad- 
Building  ford's  own  words :  "  Lastly  (which  was  not 
up  the  least),  a  great  hope  and  inward  zeal  they  had 

kingdom  Qf  laying  some  good  foundation,  or  at  least 
to  make  some  way  thereunto,  for  the  propa- 
gating and  advancing  the  gospel  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ 
in  those  remote  parts  of  the  world;  yea,  though  they 
should  be  even  as  stepping-stones  unto  others  for  the  per- 
forming of  so  great  a  work." 

These  were  the  reasons  advanced  in  justification  of  the 
action  proposed  and  taken.  Well  might  they  be  called  by 
the  wise  man  who  formulated  them  "  weighty  and  solid." 

A  distinguished  ex-governor  of  Massachusetts  has  been 
at  pains  to  say  repeatedly,  when  addressing  assemblies 
on  Forefathers'  Day,  and  on  other  occasions  when  the 
Pilgrims  were  under  consideration,  that  these  men  came  to 
our  shores  in  part,  at  least,  as  a  business  venture.  Of 
necessity  there  was  a  business  side  to  their  movement. 
There  had  to  be.  There  had  to  be  just  as  there  had  to  be 
a  business  side  to  the  movement  of  Carey  when  he  went  to 
India,  or  of  Livingstone  when  he  went  to  Africa,  or  of  the 
Iowa  Band  when  it  went  out  into  that  new  state  beyond 
the  Mississippi. 

But  the  overmastering  passion  of  these  rare  souls  was 
religion.  In  their  actions  they  were  controlled  by  loyalty 
to  God  and  loyalty  to  humanity.  They  crossed  the  water 
in  obedience  to  an  unselfish  purpose ;  and  to  attribute  any 
lower  motive  to  them  is  to  misread  their  lives  and  misinter- 
pret their  aims. 


152  THE    PILGRIMS 


II 


It  having  been  definitely  settled  that  they  were  to  leave 
Leyden,  the  next  question  to  which  the  Pilgrims  had  to 
give  serious  attention  was  the  country  on 
Deciding  which  they  should  fix  for  a  permanent  home, 
where  they  As  might  have  been  expected,  these  men  of 
should  go  q.oci  began  their  conference  on  this  grave 
matter  with  "  humble  prayer  "  for  divine  "  di- 
rection and  guidance." 

Two  preferences  were  expressed. 

One  was  for  Guiana,  or  other  fertile  spot  in  the  hot 
countries.  Guiana  was  named  most  likely  because  Raleigh, 
twenty  years  before,  had  published  a  book  in  which  the 
attractions  of  this  region  were  set  forth  in  glowing  colors. 
As  another  has  said,  he  made  it  appear  to  be  a  "  romantic 
paradise  ...  a  fair,  rich,  and  mighty  empire,  where  the 
trees  were  in  delicious  groves,  where  the  deer  came  at  call, 
where  the  singing  birds  were  singing  a  thousand  charming 
tunes  to  gentle  airs  in  the  forest,  and  where  the  very  stones 
beneath  their  feet  promised  gold  and  silver."  It  was  a 
fascinating  picture  well  fitted  to  capture  the  imagination 
of  men  whose  courage  was  not  tempered  by  sober  judg- 
ment, and  whose  ruling  motives  were  not  godliness,  but 
gain. 

Substantial  reasons  were  advanced,  as  they  well  might 
be,  for  going  to  Guiana ;  but  still  more  substantial  reasons 
were  urged  for  not  selecting  this  country.  It  was  admit- 
ted that  "  the  country  was  both  fruitful  and  pleasant ; 
and  might  yield  riches  and  maintenance  to  the  possessors 
more  easily  than  the  others;  yet  other  things  considered, 
it  could  not  be  so  fit  for  them.  And  first,  that  such  hot 
countries  are  subject  to  grievous  diseases  and  many 
noisome  impediments,  which  other  more  temperate  places 
are  freer  from;  and  would  not  so  well  agree  with  our 
English  bodies.  Again,  if  they  should  there  live  and  do 
well,  the  jealous  Spaniard  would  never  suffer  them  long; 
but  would  displant  or  overthrow  them,  as  he  did  the 
French  in  Florida,  who  seated  further  from  his  richest 


THE    PILGRIMS  153 

countries ;  and  the  sooner,  because  they  should  have  none 
to  protect  them;  and  their  own  strength  would  be  too 
small  to  resist  so  potent  an  enemy  and  so  near  a  neighbor." 

The  men  who  were  wise  enough  to  take  these  positions 
did  not  need  to  go  to  school  to  subsequent  events  to  learn 
the  true  inwardness  either  of  Spain  or  South  America. 
They  knew  beforehand  what  all  the  world  knows  now. 
Holland  was  a  good  place  in  which  to  absorb  practical 
knowledge  of  the  spirit  of  Spanish  rulers. 

The  other  preference  was  for  Virginia. 

The  idea  of  migration  to  America  had  long  been  in  the 
English  mind.  A  home  in  the  wilderness  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic  was  a  favorite  dream  with  men  who  were 
restless  and  wished  more  scope  for  the  exercise  of  their 
powers,  or  for  men  who  were  oppressed  and  desired  to 
escape  the  hard  conditions  imposed  by  unjust  laws  and 
tyrannical  rulers.  As  early  as  159&,  or  more  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  before  the  event  with  which  we  have  to  do, 
a  petition  for  liberty  to  form  a  Separatist  colony  to  go  to 
this  new  land  was  presented  to  Queen  Elizabeth.  It  was 
only  natural  that  the  Pilgrims  should  have  thought  of 
going  across  the  waters.  If  a  change  of  residence  was  to 
be  made,  it  must  be  some  country  outside  the  country  of 
their  birth.  America,  with  all  its  hardships  and  perils, 
some  of  which  were  never  so  much  as  imagined  till  they 
were  realized  in  experience,  seemed  to  be  the  only  country, 
with  doors  wide  open,  and  liberty  ample  enough  to  permit 
them  to  go  in  and  out  unhindered  in  the  enjoyment  of  their 
own  faith,  and  in  the  service  of  God  and  man. 

But  the  arguments  against  the  selection  of  Virginia 
were  conclusive.  To  go  there  would  be  to  establish  them- 
selves within  easy  reach  of  the  persecuting  power  from 
which  they  had  fled,  while  at  the  same  time  they  would  be 
out  of  reach  of  effective  help  from  those  who  were  favor- 
ably disposed  towards  them. 

"  At  length,  the  conclusion  was  to  live  as  a  distinct  body 
by  themselves  under  the  general  government  of  Virginia; 
and  by  their  friends  to  sue  His  Majesty  that  he  would  be 
pleased  to  grant  them  Freedom  of  Religion ;  and  that  this 
might  be  obtained,  they  were  put  in  good  hope  by  some 


154  THE    PILGRIMS 

Great  Persons  of  good  rank  and  quality  that  were  made 
their  friends."  The  highest  kind  of  practical  sagacity 
again!  For  at  the  end  of  all  these  years  who  can  see 
what  wiser  course  was  open  to  them? 

But  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  these  men  began  their 
consultation  over  the  question  of  Whither  with  "  humble 
prayers "  for  divine  "  direction  and  assistance."  Is  it 
possible  to  doubt,  or,  if  it  is  possible,  is  it  reasonable  to 
doubt,  that  they  received  the  "  direction  and  assistance  " 
for  which  they  prayed? 

ni 

The  Pilgrims  had  a  whole  line  of  questions  to  settle.  So 
soon  as  they  had  disposed  of  one  in  a  satisfactory  way 
they  were  confronted  by  another.  They  had 
How  obtain  decided  to  go;  they  had  decided  where  they 
means  to  would  go;  but  how  reach  their  destination? 
carry  out  t^  auspices  and  terms  under  which  they 
their  plan  would  make  their  brave  venture  of  establish- 
ing new  homes  and  planting  churches  and 
laying  the  foundations  of  a  free  state  across  the  sea 
presented  a  problem  vastly  more  difficult  of  solution  than 
either  of  the  others  which  they  had  considered.  Where 
were  the  means  to  come  from,  and  who  would  stand 
sponsor  for  the  successful  carrying  out  of  an  undertaking 
so  formidable? 

There  were  two  Virginia  companies  organized  in 
England.  One  was  called  the  London  Company,  the  other 
the  Plymouth  —  though  the  latter,  like  the  former,  did 
its  business  in  London.  Both  received  their  charters 
from  James  I  in  1606.  Neither  company  prospered.  The 
London  Company  became  bankrupt  in  1624,  and  was 
forced  to  close  its  books.  The  Plymouth  Company  held 
on  until  1635 ;  though  for  the  last  fifteen  years  of  its 
existence  it  appears  to  have  been  merged  into  and  known 
as  The  Council  for  New  England.  But  while  these  com- 
panies were  financial  disappointments  to  their  promoters 
and  members,  they  were  important  intermediaries  in  the 
settlement  of  the  English  colonies. 


THE    PILGRIMS  155 

As  soon  as  it  had  been  definitely  decided  to  leave  Leyden, 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  three  years  before  the  migra- 
tion took  place,  approaches  were  made  to  the  London 
Company.  The  object  in  view  in  approaching  this  com- 
pany was  twofold:  first,  to  secure  a  patent,  or  lease, 
which  would  enable  the  colony  to  make  their  settlement 
under  due  legal  authority;  and  second,  to  conciliate  the 
favor  of  the  king.  There  were  good  grounds  for  hoping 
to  secure  both  of  these  ends.  It  was  the  business  of  the 
Company  to  further  colonization.  As  was  said  in  a  pre- 
ceding paragraph,  in  association  with  the  Company,  or  in 
close  affiliation  with  those  who  were  associated  with  the 
Company,  there  were  certain  "  Great  Persons  "  who  might 
be  expected,  since  they  were  avowed  friends  of  the  Sepa- 
ratists, to  aid  them  in  gaining  their  ends.  These  "  Great 
Persons  "  were  Sir  Robert  Naunton,  secretary  of  state 
to  James,  and  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  one  of  the  best  specimens 
of  the  best  Englishmen  of  his  time.  The  agents  sent  over 
to  conduct  the  business  were  John  Carver  and  Robert 
Cushman.  Others,  like  Elder  Brewster,  had  a  hand  in  the 
affair ;  but  Carver  and  Cushman  were  the  chief  factors  in 
conducting  the  negotiations. 

In  both  the  particulars  in  which  they  had  hoped  to  suc- 
ceed, the  Pilgrims  were  disappointed.  Naunton  did  his 
best  "  to  move  His  Majesty,  by  a  private  mo- 
Outcome  of  tion,  to  give  way  to  such  a  people,  who  could 
negotia-  not  so  comfortably  live  under  the  government 
tions  0f  another  state,  to  enjoy  their  liberty  of  con- 

science under  his  gracious  protection  in  Amer- 
ica; where  they  would  endeavor  the  advancement  of  His 
Majesty's  dominions,  and  the  enlargement  of  the  Gospel, 
by  all  due  means."  The  king  admitted  that  this  "  was  a 
good  and  honest  motion."  When  told  that  the  immediate 
profits  likely  to  come  from  the  endeavor  would  be  the  prof- 
its arising  from  "  fishing,"  he  replied,  with  his  ordinary 
asseveration,  "  so  God  have  my  soul !  't  is  an  honest  trade ! 
It  was  the  Apostle's  own  calling."  Up  to  this  point  the 
outlook  was  promising.  But  later,  and  when  further 
pressed  on  the  subject,  the  king  informed  his  secretary 
that   these   applicants   must   make   their    appeal   to   the 


156  THE    PILGRIMS 

bishops  of  Canterbury  and  London.  These  bishops  were 
George  Abbot  and  John  King.  While  Abbot  was  able, 
liberal-minded,  kindly,  and  disposed  to  sympathize  with 
the  aims  of  Puritanism,  and  would  have  had,  no  doubt, 
the  controlling  voice  on  his  side  in  any  conference  with  the 
agents  of  the  Pilgrims,  yet  the  Pilgrims  had  had  enough 
to  do  with  bishops  to  make  them  distrustful  of  any  help 
to  be  obtained  from  that  source.  Still  their  case  was 
laid  before  the  archbishop  by  some  of  their  friends.  It 
was  of  no  use.  Both  as  respects  the  head  of  the  nation 
and  the  head  of  the  Church,  securing  the  favors  sought 
u  proved,"  in  the  quaint,  terse  language  of  Bradford,  "  a 
harder  piece  of  work  than  they  took  it  for;  for  though 
many  means  were  used  to  bring  it  about,  yet  it  could  not 
be  effected."  As  might  have  been  expected,  "  this  made  a 
damp  in  the  business,  and  caused  some  distraction."  Yet 
something  was  gained.  For  in  sounding  the  mind  of  James, 
it  was  found  "  that  he  would  connive  at  them,  and  not 
molest  them ;  provided  they  carried  themselves  peaceably ; 
but  to  allow,  or  tolerate  them  by  his  public  authority,  under 
his  seal,"  he  would  not.  This  was  something  of  an  advance 
on  the  old  platform  of  harrying  them  out  of  the  kingdom 
if  they  refused  to  conform,  and  then  arresting  them  if  they 
attempted  to  leave. 

On  this  turn  in  affairs  the  Pilgrims  through  their  agents 
applied  more  directly  to  the  London  Company.  Practically 
nothing  came  of  this  application.  The  Company  was  found 
to  be  very  desirous  to  have  them  go  out  under  its  auspices. 
A  patent  would  be  granted  them  with  as  ample  privileges 
as  they  had,  or  could  grant  to  any  body  of  colonists.  In 
addition  to  this  the  company  stood  ready  "  to  give  them 
the  best  furtherance  they  could."  It  was  in  vain.  The 
business  dragged  on  through  almost  two  years.  At  length 
the  promised  patent  was  granted  —  granted  not  directly, 
but  to  an  individual  in  trust  for  his  associates;  but  this 
patent  was  never  used.  It  came  too  late.  It  came  when 
the  London  Company  was  nearly  worn  out  with  working 
at  cross-purposes  and  quarrels,  and  when  it  had  no  funds 
to  use  in  aid  of  transportation. 


THE    PILGRIMS  157 


IV 

Meanwhile  the  thoughts  of  the  Pilgrims  were  turned  in 
another  direction.    In  the  midst  of  their  perplexities,  when 

their  hopes  of  help  in  influential  quarters  were 
Solicita-  a]i  failing  them  and  discouraging  accounts  of 
tions  and  j-he  ill  success  of  other  companies  who  were 
offers  by  trying  to  make  settlements  in  the  New  World 
the  Dutch      were  reaching  them,   "  some  Dutchmen   made 

them  fair  offers  about  going  with  them."  The 
industry,  the  thrift,  the  self-respect,  the  sturdy  honesty, 
the  faith  in  God,  the  mutual  love  and  peaceableness  of  these 
English  exiles,  had  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  Dutch; 
and  those  of  the  people  who  were  interested  in  trade,  or  in 
the  extension  of  the  territorial  boundaries  of  the  nation, 
knew  well  what  a  stable  and  promising  element  these  men 
and  women  would  furnish  to  any  colony.  Their  overtures 
were  negatived,  though  what  might  have  come  from  them 
under  further  prosecution  can  only  be  conjectured;  but  as 
it  was,  attempts  to  draw  the  Pilgrims  into  a  settlement 
under  Dutch  auspices  came  to  an  abrupt  ending  by  the 
opening  of  a  door  in  another  direction. 


Thomas  Weston  was  a  "  Merchant  of  London."  He 
appears  to  have  been  well  acquainted  with  some  of  the 
leading  members  of  the  Leyden  church.  Brad- 
Thomas  for(j  Speaks  of  him  as  one  who  had  rendered 
Weston  them  assistance  in  some  of  their  previous 
and  the  starts.  He  was  an  enterprising  rascal ;  and  in 
Merchant  consequence  of  his  rascality  he  died  a  poor, 
Adven-  despised,  and  miserable  wretch.  But  at  this 
turers  time  he  talked  bravely,  and  had  the  confidence 
of  Robinson  and  his  associates.  He  appeared 
on  the  scene  at  Leyden  while  the  negotiations  with  the 
Dutch  were  still  in  hand.  At  his  instance  these  negotiations 
were  broken  off,  and  an  entirely  new  plan  of  migration  was 


158  THE    PILGRIMS 

formulated.  Weston  and  his  friends  among  the  merchants 
would  aid  the  exiles,  so  he  gave  them  to  understand,  to  any 
extent  necessary  to  the  carrying  out  of  their  project  of 
removal.  Using  their  own  means  so  far  as  they  might, 
they  were  to  make  ready  for  the  voyage,  "  and  neither 
fear  want  of  shipping  nor  money ;  for  what  they  wanted 
should  be  provided."  The  offer  was  accepted.  This  was 
probably  in  February  of  1620;  and  was  what  had  come 
to  pass  after  nearly  three  years  of  negotiations. 

Who  were  the  "  friends  "  of  Weston  on  whose  backing 
he  so  confidently  counted?  They  were  the  Adventurers. 
Who  again  were  the  Adventurers  ?  We  are  indebted  to  the 
"  Letter  Book  "  of  Bradford  for  their  names,  or  the  names 
of  most  of  them ;  and  to  Captain  John  Smith's  "  Gen- 
eral History,"  published  in  1624,  for  such  particulars  as 
are  available  concerning  them.  It  would  appear  that 
Weston  had  brought  them  together  and  secured  their  co- 
operation in  this  enterprise  of  transporting  the  Pilgrims 
to  the  shores  of  America.  In  number  they  were  about  sev- 
enty. Some  of  them  were  "  Gentlemen ;  some,  merchants ; 
some,  handicraftsmen."  They  were  not  a  corporation, 
but  a  body  bound  together  by  voluntary  consent,  with- 
out constraint  or  penalty,  "  whose  aim  was  to  do  good  and 
plant  religion."  Some  of  them  had  large  estates  and  much 
interest  in  the  undertaking.  Others  had  less  wealth  and 
less  willingness  to  make  advances.  It  is  altogether  probable 
that  a  majority  of  the  body  were  chiefly  concerned  with  the 
financial  outcome  of  the  venture.  Still  a  sum  by  no  means 
insignificant  was  invested  in  this  movement  of  the  adven- 
turers. According  to  Smith,  inside  of  three  years  they 
had  put  £7000  into  the  general  stock.  That  reduced 
to  dollars,  and  to  the  purchasing  power  of  dollars  at  the 
present  time,  would  not  be  less  than  $140,000.  These 
were  the  men,  with  Weston  at  their  head,  who  had  come  to 
the  rescue,  and  were  to  further  the  Pilgrims  in  their  great 
historic  migration. 


THE    PILGRIMS  159 


VI 


At  once,  and  while  Weston  was  still  in  Leyden,  articles 
of  agreement  were  drawn  up  and  the  undertaking  was  set 
in  motion.  The  basis  of  this  enterprise  was 
Articles  of  that  of  a  joint  stock  company.  Shares  were 
agreement  ten  pounds  each.  An  adventurer  who  contrib- 
between  utecl  ten  pounds  to  the  common  treasury  was 

the  Pil-  entitled  to  one  share,  and  an  additional  share 

grims  and  for  eacn  ten  pounds  invested.  Each  colonist, 
Adven-  wno  was  sixteen  years  of  age  or  upward,  was 

turers  rated  at  ten  pounds,  and  received  one  share  of 

the  stock.  A  colonist  who  made  provision  for 
himself  to  the  amount  of  ten  pounds  was  given  an  addi- 
tional share.  There  were  minor  details  and  provisions 
for  contingencies;  but  the  general  principle  on  which  the 
undertaking  on  its  business  side  was  to  be  operated  was  as 
here  stated.  The  partnership  thus  instituted,  "  except  some 
unexpected  impediment "  should  "  cause  the  whole  com- 
pany to  agree  otherwise,"  was  to  continue  seven  years ;  and 
then  was  to  come  the  division  of  whatever  had  been  accumu- 
lated. 

It  is  not  to  be  questioned  that  the  terms  of  the  agreement 
are  expressed  in  a  way  to  create  doubt  of  their  exact  mean- 
ing. But  the  ruling  idea  of  it  was  men  and  means,  colo- 
nists and  capital,  in  an  even  balance.  The  final  division  was 
to  be  in  two  parts  —  one-half  to  go  to  the  Adventurers 
and  one-half  to  the  colonists ;  and  each  owner  of  stock 
was  to  receive  from  the  half  in  which  he  had  ownership 
according  to  the  number  of  his  shares.  After  reaching  this 
conclusion  by  an  independent  study  of  the  transaction,  it 
was  gratifying  to  find  the  contention  supported  by  Dr. 
Ames,  who  says :  "  Their  respective  bodies  "  were  "  associ- 
ated as  but  two  partners  in  an  equal  copartnership,  the 
interests  of  the  respective  partners  being  (probably)  held 
upon  differing  bases  —  contrary  to  the  commonly  pub- 
lished and  accepted  views." 

In  the  original  agreement  —  the  agreement  which  was 
made  and  assented  to  by  the  Pilgrims  before  they  left 


160  THE    PILGRIMS 

Leyden,  and  under  the  terms  of  which  they  decided  to  go 
forward,  there  were  two  wise  and  humane  provisions  made 
for  the  benefit  and  encouragement  of  the  colonists.  First, 
it  was  stipulated  that  "  the  houses,  and  lands  improved, 
especially  gardens  and  home-lots,  should  remain  undivided," 
and  belong  exclusively  to  the  colonists.  Second,  it  was 
stipulated  that  the  colonists,  "  especially  such  as  had 
families,"  should  have  two  days  in  a  week  for  their  own 
private  employment.  This  was  "  for  the  more  comfort 
of  themselves  and  their  families." 

In  justification  of  the  propriety  and  advantage  of  these 
stipulations,  Robinson  remarks :  "  Let  this  especially  be 
borne  in  mind,  that  the  greatest  part  of  the  colony  is  like 
to  be  employed  constantly,  not  upon  dressing  their  particu- 
lar land  and  building  homes,  but  upon  fishing,  trading,  etc. 
So  as  the  land  and  house  will  be  but  a  trifle  for  advantage 
to  the  Adventurers,  and  yet  the  division  of  it  a  great  dis- 
couragement to  the  Planters,  who  would  with  singular  care 
make  it  comfortable  with  borrowed  hours  from  their  sleep. 
The  same  considerations  of  common  employment  constantly 
by  the  most  is  a  good  reason  not  to  have  the  two  days  in  a 
week  denied  the  few  Planters  for  private  use,  which  yet  is 
subordinate  to  the  common  good.  Consider  also  how  much 
unfit  that  you  and  your  like  must  serve  a  new  apprentice- 
ship of  seven  years,  and  not  a  day's  freedom  from  task." 


VII 

Here,  in  order  to  give  unity  and  completeness  to  the 
account  of  the  transaction  with  which  we  are  now  dealing, 
it  seems  better  to  anticipate  a  modification  in 
Dishearten-  ^he  plan  just  given  which  was  made  at  the  last 
ing  change  moment,  and  of  which  the  colonists  knew  noth- 
in  the  ar-  jng  until  they  reached  Southampton, 
tides  of  With  the  liberal  agreement,  originally  en- 

agreement     tered  into  and  already  stated,  some  of  the  more 
avaricious  of  the  Adventurers  became  dissatis- 
fied, and  when  the  Pilgrims  had  gone  too  far  to  back  out, 
save  at  serious  loss  to  no  small  numbers  of  them,  and  humili- 


THE    PILGRIMS  161 

ating  disaster  to  their  cause,  quite  a  contingent  of  the 
moneyed  men  of  the  enterprise  balked,  and  declared  that  the 
stipulation  yielded  too  much  to  the  colonists,  and  must  be 
changed  to  allow  all  incomes  and  properties  to  go  to  swell 
the  common  possessions,  or  they  would  withhold  payment 
for  their  stock  and  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  the  under- 
taking. Alarmed  by  these  threats,  and  solicitous,  so  he 
claimed,  lest  the  whole  movement  should  come  to  naught, 
Cushman  gave  in,  and  on  his  own  responsibility  consented 
to  an  alteration  in  the  articles  of  agreement  in  the  two 
particulars  specified.  Under  the  modified  articles,  the 
colonists  were  not  to  have  the  "  two  days  in  a  week  for  their 
own  private  employment "  on  which  they  had  set  their 
hearts.  Moreover  "  all  profits  and  benefits  "  which  were 
obtained  by  the  "  trade,  traffic,  trucking,  working,  fishing, 
or  any  other  means  "  of  any  of  the  colonists  were  to  be  made 
over  to  the  common  stock.  This  swallowed  up  the  houses 
which  they  had  hoped  to  build  and  occupy  and  call  their 
own,  and  the  little  garden-plots  which  in  imagination  they 
had  seen  enriching  and  beautifying  their  rude  homes  in  the 
wilderness. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  this  change  in  the  terms  of  the 
agreement  occasioned  disappointment,  grief,  and  even 
anger;  and  that  it  led  to  the  interchange  of  language 
which  it  is  charitable  to  call  simply  sharp.  The  wonder 
would  be,  had  there  been  no  hot  indignation  on  learning 
these  facts.  It  was  indeed  a  hard  bargain,  and  it  was  sub- 
mitted to  by  the  Pilgrims  because  there  was  no  other  way 
in  which  they  could  carry  out  their  high  and  valiant  pur- 
pose. But  while  hard,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  other 
rational  course  was  open  to  Cushman.  He  had  to  deal  with 
business  men,  on  what  business  men  are  fond  of  calling  a 
business  basis ;  and  he  saw  clearly  that  it  was  better  to  go 
under  hard  conditions  than  not  to  go  at  all.  If,  as  has  been 
said  in  a  previous  chapter,  Cushman  is  to  be  blamed  for 
what  he  did,  it  is  nevertheless  clear  that  he  was  used  of 
God  for  the  fulfilling  of  a  great  design. 

The  blame  lies  at  another  door.  Thomas  Weston  was 
both  the  mover  and  the  marplot  in  this  affair  of  the  part- 
nership between  the  London  Merchants  and  the  Leyden 

11 


162  THE    PILGRIMS 

Separatists.  If  indignation  is  to  be  felt  towards  anybody 
this  selfish  schemer  should  be  the  object  of  it.  In  a  letter 
to  Carver  and  Cushman,  when  the  outlook  seemed  desperate, 
Fuller,  Winslow,  Bradford,  and  Allerton  expressed  their 
latent  distrust  of  Weston  by  using  this  expression :  "  in 
whom  we  hope  we  are  not  deceived."  In  this  communication 
these  men  affirm  that  it  was  at  his  suggestion  they  entered 
on  the  undertaking  of  going  to  America,  and  in  full  assur- 
ance that  if  he  had  not  seen  means  of  finishing  the  business 
he  would  not  have  begun  it ;  and  they  hope  that  in  their  ex- 
tremity he  will  so  far  help  that  their  confidence  in  him  may 
be  justified.  Alas  for  their  expectations!  Alas,  too,  that 
there  will  be  further  occasion  for  speaking  of  this  Weston ! 
Meantime  to  give  effect  to  these  negotiations  and  carry 
out  their  plans,  two  ships  had  been  secured  for  the  trans- 
portation of  passengers  and  goods  across  the 
Ships  water.    One  was  the  Mayflower  which  had  been 

secured  hired    for   the    voyage.      The    other    was   the 

Speedwell  which  had  been  purchased,  and  was 
to  remain  and  be  at  the  service  of  the  colonists  when  they 
had  become  established  in  their  new  home.  It  was  a  wise 
scheme,  but  destined  not  to  be  realized. 


VIII 

Incidentally,  and  at  the  outset  of  the  negotiations,  whose 
story  has  now  been  told,  views   and  characteristics  were 

brought  out  which  were  greatly  to  the  credit 
Side-lights     0f  the  Pilgrims,  and  which  ought  to  magnify 
thrown  on     them  evermore  in  the  estimation  of  posterity, 
the  Pil-  First,  there  was  a  document  drawn  up  by 

grims  them,  called  the  Seven  Articles,  in  which  the 

faith  and  form  of  government  of  the  Leyden 
church  were  set  forth  in  explicit  statements.  The  object 
of  these  articles  was  to  reduce  to  lowest  terms  consistent 
with  honesty  the  differences  between  themselves  and  the 
Church  of  England.  This,  again,  was  to  satisfy  the  more 
reasonable  and  kindly  of  the  officials  and  adherents  of  the 
king,  and  likewise  to  soften  the  heart  of  the  king  himself. 


THE    PILGRIMS  163 

These  articles  were  sent  by  the  Leyden  church  to  the 
Privy  Council  of  England.  For  while  the  agents  of  the 
Pilgrims  were  making  every  effort  possible  to  interest  the 
London  Company  in  their  behalf,  at  the  same  time,  and 
most  likely  through  all  the  negotiations,  such  influence  as 
they  could  command  was  brought  to  bear  on  the  council  to 
further  their  aims.  It  has  already  been  shown  how  Naun- 
ton  worked  for  them. 

In  these  articles  complete  assent  was  avowed  to  the 
Confession  of  Faith  of  the  Church  of  England;  frank 
acknowledgment  was  made  of  the  good  effects  of  these 
doctrines  as  held  and  taught  "  to  the  begetting  of  saving 
faith  in  thousands  in  the  land,"  and  the  desire  was  ex- 
pressed "  to  keep  spiritual  communion  "  with  both  "  Con- 
formists and  Reformists,"  as  with  brethren ;  thorough-going 
loyalty  was  declared  to  the  king;  the  right  of  the  king  to 
appoint  bishops  was  admitted;  so,  too,  the  authority  of 
bishops,  so  far  as  this  authority  came  to  them  from  His 
Majesty,  was  admitted;  that  "no  Synod,  Classes,  Convo- 
cation, or  Assembly  of  Ecclesiastical  Officers,  possessed  any 
power  or  authority,"  save  as  imparted  to  them  by  the 
magistrate ;  and  lastly,  a  declaration  of  intent  "  to  give 
to  all  Superiors  due  honor,  to  preserve  the  unity  of  the 
Spirit  with  all  that  fear  God,  and  to  have  peace  with  all 
men,"  in  so  far  as  it  was  in  their  power.  These  articles 
carried  the  signatures  of  John  Robinson  and  William 
Brewster ;  and  the  contents  of  them  gave  great  satisfaction 
to  all  friends  of  the  Leyden  church. 

In  these  articles  it  will  be  observed  that  nothing  is  said 
about  the  setting  apart  of  men  to  the  ministry.  Critical 
eyes  noticed  this  omission.  But  nothing  could  have  induced 
these  conscientious  and  determined  Separatists  to  locate 
the  authority  for  making  ministers  anywhere  else  than  in 
the  Church.  Neither  pope  nor  potentate  might  assume 
this  sacred  prerogative.  They  held  that  the  call  to  the 
ministry  comes  from  God,  but  that  the  acknowledgment 
and  ratification  of  this  call  resides  in  the  Church. 

Bearing  date  a  few  weeks  later,  there  was  another  com- 
munication, signed  by  the  same  leaders,  Robinson  and 
Brewster,  called  by  the  writers  "  instances  of  inducement," 


164  THE    PILGRIMS 

in  which  their  faith,  their  habits,  their  motives,  and  their 
fitness  for  such  an  enterprise  as  the  one  on  which  they  hoped 
soon  to  enter,  were  declared  to  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  in  the 
frankness  and  love  which  the  friendship  of  this  large-souled 
man  had  inspired  in  their  breasts.  It  is  important  to 
reproduce  these  statements  entire  and  just  as  they  have 
come  to  us ;  for  here  we  have  thoughts  which  are  apples  of 
gold  in  words  which  are  baskets  of  silver. 

"  First,  we  verily  believe  and  trust  the  Lord  is  with 
us;  unto  whom,  and  whose  service,  we  have  given  our- 
selves in  many  trials;  and  that  He  will  graciously  pros- 
per our  endeavor,  according  to  the  simplicity  of  our  hearts 
therein. 

"  Secondly,  we  are  well  weaned  from  the  delicate  milk  of 
our  mother  country;  and  inured  to  the  difficulties  of  a 
strange  and  hard  land;  which  yet,  in  great  part,  we  have 
by  patience  overcome. 

"  Thirdly,  the  people  are,  for  the  body  of  them,  indus- 
trious and  frugal,  we  think  we  may  safely  say,  as  any 
company  of  people  in  the  world. 

"  Fourthly,  we  are  knit  together  as  a  body,  in  a  most 
strict  and  sacred  bond  and  covenant  of  the  Lord;  of  the 
violation  whereof  we  make  great  conscience ;  and  by  virtue 
whereof,  we  do  hold  ourselves  strictly  tied  to  all  love  of 
each  other's  good,  and  of  the  whole,  by  every  one ;  and  so 
mutually. 

"  Lastly,  it  is  not  with  us  as  with  other  men  whom  small 
things  can  discourage,  or  small  discontentments  cause  to 
wish  themselves  at  home  again.  We  know  our  Entertainment 
in  England,  and  in  Holland.  We  shall  much  prejudice 
both  our  arts  and  means  by  removal.  If  we  should  be  driven 
to  return,  we  should  not  hope  to  recover  our  present  helps 
and  comforts;  neither  indeed  look  ever,  for  ourselves,  to 
attain  unto  the  like  in  any  other  place,  during  our  lives; 
which  are  now  drawing  towards  their  periods." 

Neither  soundness  of  faith,  nor  pure  and  devoted  lives, 
nor  loyalty  to  the  sovereign,  nor  avowals  the  most  earnest 
and  sincere  of  love  for  their  native  land,  nor  loftiest  Chris- 
tian aims,  nor  all  of  them  combined,  availed  to  secure  to 
these  men  the  simple  privileges  which  they  sought.     God 


THE    PILGRIMS  165 

had  something  better  for  them,  and  a  higher  place  in  the 
reverence  and  affection  of  the  generations  which  were  to 
follow,  than  the  favor  which  could  come  to  them  through 
the  patronage  of  bishops  and  kings.  In  the  design  of  a 
beneficent  Providence  it  was  meant  that  all  the  credit  of 
their  great  achievement  should  go,  not  to  those  who  sat 
in  the  high  places  of  the  earth  and  exercised  authority  and 
wielded  the  mighty  power  of  church  and  state,  but  to  these 
exiles  themselves. 

IX 

At  length  the  time  came  when  preliminary  points  had  all 
been  settled.  Not  far  from  three  full  years  had  been  con- 
sumed in  conferences  and  negotiations.  It  was  a  long  and 
tedious  business,  with  many  ins  and  outs  to  it,  and  many 
disheartening  setbacks  —  this  getting  ready  to  go.  Often 
it  looked  as  if  all  their  attempts  were  to  be  thwarted  and 
their  hopes  brought  to  naught.  It  was  not  so  to  be.  They 
were  to  make  their  venture  and  at  the  same  time  make 
a  glorious  chapter  in  human  history. 

But  who  were  to  go  ?  Who  were  to  be  the  advance  agents 
of  this  new  movement  in  the  progress  of  mankind?  Not 
all  could  leave.  Some,  we  may  well  suppose, 
Who  were  were  in  no  physical  condition  for  the  undertak- 
to  emi-  jng       Some  who  were  willing  to  join  in  the 

grate  migration  could  not  get  ready  in  time.     Means 

were  limited,  and  only  a  part  of  the  company 
could  be  provided  with  transportation  at  that  time.  No  one 
was  constrained  to  go,  but  only  those  who  voluntarily 
chose  to  do  so  joined  in  the  migration.  Both  sections  of 
the  company,  those  who  remained  and  those  who  went,  de- 
sired to  have  their  beloved  pastor  with  them ;  but  it  seems 
to  have  been  mutually  agreed  that  he  was  to  identify  him- 
self with  the  larger  body;  and  as  those  who  stayed  were 
more  than  those  who  went,  Robinson,  "  who  for  other  rea- 
sons could  not  then  well  go,"  kept  on  at  Leyden.  But  he 
remained  in  hope  —  in  hope  that  he,  too,  in  a  little  while 
might  follow  on  and  join  those  who  had  gone  before.  It 
was  a  hope  never  to  be  realized.     In  less  than  five  years 


166  THE    PILGRIMS 

from  this  historic  midsummer  when  the  first  instalment  of 
migrating  Pilgrims  set  their  faces  westward,  Robinson  was 
not,  for  God  had  taken  him.  This  arrangement  made  it 
expedient,  if  not  necessary,  for  Brewster  to  go. 

How  many  left  Leyden  and  embarked  on  the  Speedwell  at 
Delfshaven  for  Southampton  is  not  quite  clear.     At  any 
rate  the  authorities  differ  in  their  estimates. 
Humber  j)r    Ames  publishes  a  list  of  sixty-six  of  the 

who  left  Leyden  people  whom  he  thinks  must  have  been 
Leyden  on  board  the  Speedwell  when  she  left  Delfs- 

haven. But  in  setting  forth  the  reasons  for 
his  conclusions  in  each  individual  case,  the  word  "  proba- 
ble "  or  "  probably,"  has  to  appear  so  frequently  that  one 
rises  from  the  examination  quite  uncertain  in  his  mind.  Yet 
he  cannot  be  far  out  of  the  way ;  for  the  numbers  must  have 
been  considerable,  or  Winslow  would  not  have  been  justified 
in  saying  that  "  the  difference  "  between  the  number  of 
those  who  went  and  those  who  remained  "  was  not  great." 
The  reference  by  Winslow  was  made  no  doubt  on  the  basis 
of  the  membership  of  the  church;  and  this  was  not  large. 
But  Brewster  —  beyond  question  —  Bradford,  Winslow, 
Fuller,  Howland,  and  Standish,  were  on  the  vessel;  and 
when  these  men  were  weighed  in  the  balances  of  what  they 
were  to  do  in  the  years  to  come,  they  made  a  large  party. 


On  the  day  before  the  departure  was  to  take  place  the 
church  came  together,  and  spent  the  hours  from  morning 

till  night  in  communion  and  fasting  and 
A  tender  prayer.  It  is  better,  however,  to  let  those  who 
religious  were  sharers  in  these  sacred  experiences  tell 
service  the  story  of  both  the  departures  —  this  from 

Leyden  and  the  subsequent  one  from  Delfs- 
haven. This  is  the  account  given  by  Bradford :  "  So  being 
ready  to  depart,  they  had  a  day  of  solemn  humiliation, 
their  pastor  taking  his  text  from  Ezra  8.  21  And  there  at 
the  river,  by  Ahava,  I  proclaimed  a  fast,  that  we  might 
humble  ourselves  before  our  God,  and  seek  of  Him  a  right 


THE    PILGRIMS  167 

way  for  us,  and  for  our  children,  and  for  all  our  substance. 
Upon  which  he  spent  a  good  part  of  the  day  very  profitably, 
and  suitably  to  their  present  occasion.  The  rest  of  the  time 
was  spent  in  pouring  out  prayers  to  the  Lord  with  great 
fervency,  mixed  with  abundance  of  tears." 

What  a  day  this  must  have  been!  How  it  would  linger 
—  an  inspiring  and  sanctifying  influence  —  in  the  mem- 
ory of  all  who  had  any  part  in  its  sacred  privileges !  How 
the  words  of  their  beloved  pastor,  as  intelligently  and  ten- 
derly he  expounded  to  them  the  passage  which  sets  forth 
the  duty  of  God's  people  to  humble  their  souls  and  seek  from 
on  high  the  right  way  for  their  own  walking  and  for  the 
walking  of  their  children,  must  have  melted  into  their 
souls,  and  become  a  vital  portion  of  their  lives !  It  was  a 
wonderful  season  of  fellowship  with  God  and  with  each 
other.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  that  as  their  fervent  supplica- 
tions were  offered,  and  their  Psalms  were  sung,  and  their 
earnest  expressions  of  friendship  and  love  were  exchanged, 
the  thoughts  of  many  must  have  run  back  to  the  scenes  of 
the  upper  chamber  when  our  Lord  and  his  disciples  were 
together  for  the  last  time  before  the  crucifixion. 

Twenty-four  miles  from  Leyden,  not  as  the  bird  flies, 
but  by  lines  of  travel,  is  the  seaport  of  Delfshaven.  Here 
lay  the  Speedwell.  This  was  a  craft  of  sixty 
Fellowship  tons>  burden.  Thither,  on  the  day  following 
at  Delfs-  tne  (jay  0f  conference  and  fasting  and  prayer, 
haven  ^he  little  band  of  Pilgrims,  who  were  to  take 

passage  in  the  Speedwell  for  Southampton, 
there  to  join  the  Mayflower,  took  their  journey.  Most  of 
their  friends  and  associates  accompanied  them  to  the  place 
of  embarkation. 

"  So,"  says  Bradford,  continuing  the  narrative,  "  they 
left  the  goodly  and  pleasant  city,  which  had  been  their 
resting-place  near  twelve  years ;  but  they  knew  they  were 
pilgrims,  and  looked  not  much  on  those  things,  but  lift  up 
their  eyes  to  the  heavens,  their  dearest  country  and  quieted 
their  spirits.  When  they  came  to  the  place  they  found 
the  ship  and  all  things  ready ;  and  such  of  their  friends  as 
could  not  come  with  them  followed  after  them,  and  sundry 
also  came  from  Amsterdam  to  see  them  shipped  and  to  take 


168  THE    PILGRIMS 

their  leave  of  them.  That  night  was  spent  with  little  sleep 
by  the  most,  but  with  friendly  entertainment  and  Christian 
discourse  and  other  real  expressions  of  true  Christian  love. 
The  next  day,  the  wind  being  fair,  they  went  aboard,  and 
their  friends  with  them  where  truly  doleful  was  the  sight 
of  that  sad  and  mournful  parting;  to  see  what  sighs  and 
sobs  and  prayers  did  sound  amongst  them,  what  tears  did 
gush  from  every  eye,  and  pithy  speeches  pierced  each  heart ; 
that  sundry  of  the  Dutch  strangers  that  stood  on  the  quay 
as  spectators,  could  not  refrain  from  tears.  Yet  com- 
fortable and  sweet  it  was  to  see  such  lively  and  true  expres- 
sions of  dear  and  unfeigned  love.  But  the  tide  —  which 
stays  for  no  man  —  calling  them  away  that  were  thus  loath 
to  depart,  their  reverend  pastor  falling  down  on  his  knees  — 
and  they  all  with  him  —  with  watery  cheeks  commended 
them  with  most  fervent  prayers  to  the  Lord  and  his  bless- 
ing. And  then  with  mutual  embraces  and  many  tears, 
they  took  their  leaves  one  of  another ;  which  proved  to  be 
the  last  leave  to  many  of  them." 

Winslow,  in  his  "  Brief  Narration  "  has  also  described 
the  scene  of  this  historic  departure.  His  account  is  short ; 
but  he  adds  one  or  two  touches  to  the  picture  which  both 
freshen  the  sense  of  its  reality  and  increase  the  vividness 
of  its  coloring.  "  And  after  prayer  performed  by  our 
pastor,  where  a  flood  of  tears  was  poured  out;  they  ac- 
companied us  to  the  ship ;  but  were  not  able  to  speak  one 
to  another,  for  the  abundance  of  sorrow  to  part.  But  we 
only  going  aboard,  the  ship  lying  to  the  key,  and  ready  to 
set  sail ;  the  wind  being  fair,  we  gave  them  a  volley  of  small 
shot,  and  three  pieces  of  ordnance;  and  so  lifting  up  our 
hearts  for  each  other  to  the  Lord  our  God,  we  departed 
and  found  His  presence  with  us,  in  the  midst  of  our  mani- 
fold straits  He  carried  us  through." 


a  be 

E  S 

E  S 

B  I 


W   ^ 


0   ft 


1  Q 

a  w 

6  w 

a. 


IX 

CROSSING    THE   OCEAN 


All  Englishmen  must  feel  pride  in,  and  cherish  as  a  precious  possession, 
the  memory  of  men  who  were  true  to  their  consciences,  let  the  cost  be  what 
it  might,  and  who  pursued  their  aim  undaunted,  though  the  difficulties  were 
well-nigh  overwhelming.  —  G.  Cuthbert  Blaxland. 

Their  faults  were  those  of  their  age,  and  the  rudeness  of  the  culture  of 
many  of  them ;  their  virtues  were  their  own  —  such  as  they  were  in  native 
worth,  and  such  as  God's  grace,  mainly  in  their  severe  discipline  of  furnace, 
anvil  and  sledge  by  which  the  Divine  hand  has  been  wont  to  forge  its  most 
useful  implements  and  weapons  for  the  service  of  earth,  had  made  ihem. 

Henry  Martyn  Dexter. 

Brave  souls  were  they 

Who  dared  embark, 
And  sail  away 

Into  the  dark 
And  pathless  night. 

Brave  souls  and  great ! 

They  crossed  the  sea 
To  found  a  state 

Where  men  were  free 
Forevermore ! 

Rev.  J.  P.  Trowbridge. 

This  is  the  solitary  number,  who,  for  an  undefiled  conscience,  and  the 
love  of  pure  Christianity,  first  left  their  pleasant  and  native  land,  and  en- 
countered all  the  toils  and  hazards  of  a  tumultuous  ocean,  in  search  of  some 
uncultivated  region  in  North  Virginia  where  they  might  quietly  enjoy  their 
religious  liberties,  and  transmit  them  to  posterity.  —  Thomas  Prince. 

No  home  for  these !  too  well  they  knew 
The  mitred  king  behind  the  throne ; 
The  sails  were  set,  the  pennons  flew, 
And  westward  ho !  for  worlds  unknown. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 


IX 

CROSSING  THE  OCEAN 

SOUTHAMPTON  was  reached  on  the  fourth  day, 
probably,  after  leaving  Delfshaven.  Nothing  worthy 
of  note  occurred  on  the  passage  from  the  Dutch  to 
the  English  port.  Bradford  simply  says  of  it :  "  Thus 
hoisting  sail,  with  a  prosperous  wind,  they  came  in  short 
time  to  Southampton,  where  they  found  the  bigger  ship  " 
—  the  Mayflower  —  "  come  from  London,  lying  ready, 
with  all  the  rest  of  the  Company."  On  arriving  at  the 
landing  there  were  "  joyful  welcomes  and  mutual  congrat- 
ulations," and  "  other  friendly  entertainments." 

Beyond  this,  too,  one  cannot  help  feeling  that  the  hearts 
of  these  exiles,  shut  out  as  the  most  of  them  had  been  for 
twelve  long  years  from  the  sight  of  their  native  land,  must 
have  thrilled  with  a  peculiar  gladness  as  they  set  foot  on 
the  shores  of  England.  The  thought  of  the  tyranny  of 
the  rulers  —  ecclesiastical  and  civil  —  which  had  driven 
them  forth,  and  of  the  losses  and  hardships  they  had  been 
forced  to  endure,  would  distress  them;  but  to  walk  once 
more  under  English  skies  and  on  English  soil,  and  to  hear 
their  mother  tongue  in  the  streets,  and  to  look  on  people 
whose  dress  and  manners  had  been  so  familiar  to  them  in 
years  gone  by,  would  be  sure  to  afford  them  a  strange 
pleasure,  albeit  a  pleasure  mixed  with  melancholy. 


But  something  besides  warm  greetings  and  friendly  at- 
tentions, and  setting  foot  once  more  on  the  soil  of  their 
native  land,  awaited  the  Pilgrims  on  their  reaching  South- 


172  THE    PILGRIMS 

ampton.  They  had  to  encounter  severe  disappointments, 
to  submit  to  vexatious  delays,  and  to  suffer  embarrassing 
losses.  As  has  been  related  in  a  preceding 
Disappoint-  chapter,  the  agreement  between  the  Pilgrims 
ment,  an(j  the  Adventurers  under  which  the  migra- 

delay  and  tion  was  effected,  on  demand  of  some  of  the 
loss  moneyed  men  who  were  backing  the  undertak- 

ing, and  by  consent  of  Cushman,  was  changed 
in  some  very  important  particulars.  This  change  was 
contrary  to  explicit  orders  given  to  Cushman  by  the 
Pilgrims;  and  it  was  not  known  to  them  until  they  ar- 
rived at  Southampton.  A  new  turn  like  this  given  to 
affairs  disturbed  the  whole  party.  The  leaders  refused  to 
ratify  the  modified  articles,  and  sailed  without  doing  so. 

The  irritation  was  increased  by  the  presence  and  arro- 
gant behavior  of  Weston.  Very  naturally  he  had  come 
down  from  London  to  see  the  colonists  off,  but  he  was 
there  not  so  much  to  express  a  sympathetic  interest  in 
their  welfare  as  to  secure  their  signatures  to  the  contract 
which  had  been  changed  to  their  disadvantage.  When  he 
found  it  was  impossible  to  get  the  written  consent  of  these 
men  to  the  modified  articles  of  agreement,  he  became  top- 
lofty and  indignant.  "  He  was  much  offended,  and  told 
them  they  must  look  to  stand  on  their  own  legs."  This 
was  his  parting  shot,  as  he  turned  on  his  heel  and  went 
back  to  London. 

This  disagreement  brought  delay  and  not  a  little  em- 
barrassment. Expenses  had  already  run  up  far  beyond 
their  calculations.  The  attitude  of  Weston  and  some  of 
the  other  merchants  whose  interests  in  the  colony  were 
mercenary  rather  than  sympathetic,  left  the  Pilgrims  in 
sore  straits  for  funds  with  which  to  prosecute  their  jour- 
ney. Each  day  that  they  lingered  in  port  diminished  their 
resources  and  added  to  their  burdens.  Something  like  a 
hundred  pounds  in  addition  to  what  they  had  was  needed 
"  to  clear  things  at  their  going  away."  With  Weston,  the 
prime  mover  in  this  scheme  of  migration,  and  those  of  his 
ilk  offended,  there  was  no  one  to  whom  the  distressed  com- 
pany could  turn  for  help.  "  So  they  were  forced  to  sell  off 
some  of  their  provisions  to  stop  this  gap."    They  sold  so 


THE    PILGRIMS  173 

much,  in  fact,  that  they  had  scarcely  "  any  butter  "  left, 
"  no  oil,"  "  not  a  sole  to  mend  a  shoe,"  "  nor  every  man  a 
sword  to  his  side,  wanting  many  muskets,"  "  much  armor," 
and  other  things  essential  to  their  comfort  and  defense. 


II 

At  length,  however,  difficulties  had  been  overcome,  differ- 
ences had  been  smoothed  over  if  not  satisfactorily  adjusted, 
the  two  ships  had  been  loaded  and  put  in  trim 
Ready  to        for  sea?  the  passengers  had  been  assigned  to 
sail  the  vessels  in  which  they  were  to  sail,  "  a  Gov- 

ernor and  two  or  three  assistants  for  each 
ship  had  been  chosen,  to  order  the  people  by  the  way,  and 
see  to  the  disposing  of  their  provisions,  and  such  like," 
and  all  things  were  in  readiness  for  the  voyage.  There 
were  no  such  scenes  to  be  witnessed,  and  no  such  ceremonies 
of  farewell  in  connection  with  the  going  away  from  South- 
ampton as  there  had  been  back  at  Delf  shaven.  There  were 
no  such  wailings  and  sobbings,  no  such  heart-breaking  inter- 
views, no  such  "  salt-dropping  dews  of  vehement  affection," 
as,  according  to  Johnson  in  his  "  Wonder- Working  Provi- 
dence," signalized  the  departure  from  this  same  port  a 
few  years  later  of  a  large  company  of  the  Puritans  when 
they  "  shipped  for  the  service  of  Christ  in  the  Western 
World." 

Ill 

But  in  the  midst  of  these  final  preparations,  and  when 
near  to  the  hour  of  sailing,  there  was  pause  for  a  service 

which  was  at  once  touching  and  memorable. 
Robinson's  j^  was  ^he  reading  of  a  letter  from  their  be- 
letter  loved  pastor.      This   letter  had   followed   the 

Pilgrims  from  Leyden,  and  was  written  by 
Robinson  out  of  a  full  heart  and  in  the  spirit,  not  only  of 
a  fatherly  love,  but  of  a  profound  wisdom,  and  it  was 
designed,  no  doubt,  to  be  read  at  precisely  the  place  and 
time  selected  for  its  reading. 


174  THE    PILGRIMS 

In  this  letter  Robinson  declared  his  tender  love  for  his 
migrating  brethren,  and  assured  them  how  willingly  he 
would  have  borne  with  them  his  part  in  this  first  brunt  had 
he  not  been  held  back  by  strong  necessity.  Proceeding  then 
to  the  points  of  counsel  which  he  thought  it  fitting  for  him 
to  communicate  to  them,  he  besought  these  "  Loving  Chris- 
tian Friends  "  day  by  day  to  renew  their  repentance  to- 
ward God  in  order  that  they  might  have  great  "  security 
and  peace  in  all  dangers,  sweet  comforts  in  all  distresses, 
with  happy  deliverance  from  all  evil  whether  in  life  or  in 
death."  He  urged  them,  in  addition  to  this  "  heavenly 
peace  with  God  and  their  own  consciences,"  "  carefully  to 
provide  peace  with  all  men,"  so  far  as  they  might,  "  espe- 
cially with  "  their  "  associates."  To  this  end  he  assured 
them  that  "  watchfulness  must  be  had  "  that  they  "  neither 
in  themselves"  should  "  give,"  "  nor  easily  take  offence, 
being  given  by  others."  He  reminded  them  that  many  of 
them  were  strangers  one  to  another.  The  Leyden  brethren 
might  be  expected  to  know  each  other  well;  but  these 
brethren  who  had  sojourned  at  Leyden  for  years  were 
joined  at  Southampton  by  others  of  like  precious  faith  who 
had  never  left  England ;  and  it  might  well  be  thought  that 
the  two  parties  would  need  to  exercise  not  a  little  patience 
with  each  other,  if  they  were  to  get  along  smoothly  to- 
gether. Because  they  were  strangers,  and  because  their 
"  intended  course  of  civil  community  "  would  "  minister 
continual  occasion  of  offense,  and  be  as  fuel  for  that  fire," 
he  warned  them  that  they  must  not  fail  in  the  exercise  of 
"  brotherly  forbearance."  He  added  the  injunction  that 
in  their  "  common  employments  "  they  were  to  have  a 
common  thought  for  "  the  general  good,"  and  to  avoid  as 
"  a  deadly  plague  "  of  both  their  "  common  and  special 
comfort  "  all  plotting  for  individual  advantage.  In  con- 
clusion, he  charged  them,  that  inasmuch  as  in  the  "  body 
politic,"  which  they  were  to  become,  they  had  no  "  persons 
of  special  eminence  above  the  rest,"  they  must  elect  to 
office  only  such  men  as  would  "  entirely  love  and  promote 
the  common  good,"  and  when  such  men  were  duly  elected, 
then  all  the  members  of  the  "body  politic  "  must  join  in 
u  yielding  unto  them  all  due  honor  and  obedience  in  their 


THE    PILGRIMS  175 

lawful  administrations."  For  however  ordinary  a  person 
might  be  before  his  election  to  office,  after  election,  so  he 
taught  them,  he  became  a  minister  of  God  for  good  to  the 
people;  and  the  power  and  authority  of  the  magistrate 
must  be  recognized. 

Bradford  called  this  a  "  large  "  letter.  It  is  indeed  in 
more  senses  than  one;  and  the  good  governor  might  well 
add  that  it  was  "  fruitful  in  itself,  and  suitable  to  their 
occasion."  It  is  no  surprise  to  us  that,  when  read,  it  "  had 
good  acceptation  with  all,  and  after  fruit  with  many." 

About  the  fifteenth  of  August,  or  somewhat  more  than 
three  weeks  after  leaving  Delfshaven,  the  two  companies 
in  the  two  ships  said  farewell  to  native  land  and  set  their 
sad  but  determined  faces  westward. 

IV 

This,  after  all,  was  not  to  be  their  final  leave-taking. 
Through  the  exercise  of  the  perilous  skill  by  which  cow- 
ardly and  treacherous  men  come  to  know  so 
Further  we\\  jlow  not  to  do  what  they  do  not  wish  to 

hindrances  fo^  certain  defects  in  the  Speedwell  were  used 
and  disap-  practically  to  force  the  ship  to  spring  a  leak, 
pointments  The  vessel,  while  still  in  Holland  waters, 
had  been  overmasted;  and  consequently  all 
that  the  "  cunning  rascal,"  the  characterization  which 
Arber  gives  to  Captain  Reynolds,  had  to  do  when  he  found 
this  out  was  "  to  clap  on,  all  possible  sail,"  and  this  would 
be  sure  to  bring  about  the  result  desired.  This  is  Brad- 
ford's explanation  of  the  disaster :  "  The  leakiness  of  this 
ship  was  partly  by  her  being  overmasted  and  too  much 
pressed  with  sails." 

This,  however,  is  not  the  whole  story.  It  will  be  ob- 
served that  Bradford  says  "  partly  "  —  it  was  "  partly 
by  her  being  overmasted."  There  was  a  treachery  in  the 
case  worse  than  this.  Not  only  was  the  vessel  "  over- 
masted," but  she  was  tampered  with  and  helped  to  a  leak 
which  simple  overmasting  would  hardly  have  caused.  In 
a  letter  written  at  Dartmouth,  after  the  ship  had  put 
back  to  that  port,  and  while  they  were  still  lying  in  the 


176  THE    PILGRIMS 

dock  waiting  for  the  completion  of  repairs  on  the  Speed- 
well, Cushman  says :  "  We  put'  in  here  to  trim  her ;  and 
I  think,  as  others  also,  if  we  had  stayed  at  sea  but  three 
or  four  hours  more  she  would  have  sunk  right  down.  And 
though  she  was  twice  trimmed  at  Hampton,  yet  now  she 
is  open  and  leaky  as  a  sieve ;  and  there  was  a  board  a  man 
might  have  pulled  off  with  his  fingers,  two  feet  long,  where 
the  water  came  in  as  at  a  mole  hole."  It  is  true  that  Cush- 
man was  sick,  discouraged,  and  in  every  way  out  of  sorts 
when  these  words  were  penned ;  but  he  says  explicitly  that 
there  was  an  opening  in  the  side  of  the  ship  through  which 
the  water  was  coming  in  as  through  "  a  sieve,"  or  "  at  a 
mole  hole." 

If  there  is  still  doubt  in  any  mind  on  this  matter,  here 
is  a  further  statement  made  by  Bradford  in  close  connec- 
tion with  his  other  statement  just  quoted:  "But  more 
especially,  by  the  cunning  and  deceit  of  the  master  and 
his  company,  who  were  hired  to  stay  a  whole  year  in  the 
country,  and  now  fancying  dislike  and  fearing  want  of 
victuals,  they  plotted  this  stratagem  to  free  themselves ; 
as  afterwards  was  known  and  by  some  of  them  confessed." 

There  was  evidently  something  more  than  "  overmast- 
ing  "  to  be  put  to  the  credit  of  the  "  rascality  "  of  Captain 
Reynolds.  At  any  rate,  precious  time  and  fair  winds  were 
lost,  and  much  additional  expense  was  incurred,  by  this 
misfortune.  But  after  not  less  than  eleven  days  spent  in 
making  repairs  and  getting  ready  to  sail  once  more, 
anchors  were  weighed  and  the  ships  put  out  to  sea.  It 
must  have  been  with  not  a  little  misgiving  on  the  part  of 
those  of  the  company  who  knew  the  causes  of  the  delay, 
and  who,  in  the  circumstances,  could  not  have  quieted  their 
uncomfortable  suspicions. 

Appearances,  however,  were  favorable.  This  time  it 
really  looked  as  if  this  goodly  fellowship  of  men  and 
women  were  to  be  permitted  to  reach  their  destination 
without  further  hindrance,  save  such  as  might  arise  from 
adverse  winds  and  baffling  waves.  After  proceeding  on 
their  way  a  full  three  hundred  miles,  the  convenient  leak 
came  to  the  rescue  of  those  who  had  no  heart  for  the  un- 
dertaking, and  there  was  another  return. 


THE    PILGRIMS  177 

It  was  Plymouth  in  England  which  was  to  have  the 
unique  honor  of  saying  the  last  good-bye  and  Godspeed  to 
a  devoted  band  who  were  to  make  Plymouth  in  America 
"  holy  ground  "  for  all  coming  time. 


This  fresh  mishap  occasioned  a  detention  of  another 
precious  fortnight.  Still  this  return  brought  some  com- 
pensation to  the  oft-baffled  exiles ;  for  as  we 
Off  at  last  are  told  in  tne  «  Journal,"  they  were  "  kindly 
entertained  and  courteously  used  by  divers 
friends  "  who  dwelt  at  Plymouth.  Sympathy,  apprecia- 
tion, hospitality  and  words  of  encouragement  from  per- 
sons of  mind  and  heart  like  their  own  must  have  meant 
much  in  the  distressing  circumstances  in  which  they  were. 
The  Speedwell  was  abandoned.  As  much  of  her  cargo  as 
seemed  advisable  was  transferred  to  her  worthier  consort. 
The  timid  and  disheartened  of  the  party  were  permitted  to 
withdraw.  The  Mayflower,  with  a  passenger  list  of  one 
hundred  and  two,  again  pointed  her  prow  to  the  New 
World.  This  was  the  third  attempt,  made  almost  two  try- 
ing months  after  the  embarkation  at  Delfshaven.  But 
spreading  their  canvas  to  the  breeze,  and  committing  them- 
selves and  all  they  held  dear  to  the  God  who  rules  on  the 
waters  as  on  the  land,  and  who  guides  the  destinies  of  indi- 
viduals and  nations  alike,  these  sturdy  souls  pressed  on  over 
the  billowy  seas  and  through  tempests  fierce  and  wild, 
towards  troubles  they  could  not  have  foreseen,  and  a  glory 
surpassing  all  the  anticipations  of  the  most  extravagant 
enthusiasm. 

VI 

Here,  leaving  our  good  ship  for  a  while  to  plow  her  way 
through  stormy  waters  to  her  destined  haven,  it  is  in  place 
to  note  some  of  the  accessions  which  were  made  to  the 
colony  on  reaching  England. 

Some  of  these  were  poor  sticks  —  such  stuff  as  rascals 

12 


178  THE    PILGRIMS 

rather  than  saints  are  made  of.  In  speaking  of  John 
Billington,  who,  in  a  little  less  than  ten  years  after  the 
landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  was  tried  and  exe- 
Accessions  cuted  for  the  murder  of  John  Newcomen,  or 
to  the  Newcomin  as  he  is  called  in  the  History,  Brad- 

colony  on  f or(j  savs  .  «  He  and  some  of  his  had  been  often 
reaching  punished  for  miscarriages  before,  being  one 
England  0f  £ne  profanest  families  amongst  them.  They 
came  from  London,  and  I  know  not  by  what 
friends  shuffled  into  their  company."  This  "  profanest 
family  "  consisted  of  the  husband,  wife,  and  two  sons.  Of 
other  accessions,  two,  Trevor  and  Ely,  were  hired  sailors, 
and  went  back  to  England  at  the  end  of  their  engagement. 
Edward  Dotey  and  Edward  Lister  came  in  the  service  of 
Stephen  Hopkins.  To  these  two  young  bloods  belongs 
the  distinction  of  having  been  the  first  and  last  couple 
in  the  Plymouth  Colony  to  fight  a  duel.  Each  was  slightly 
wounded;  but  both  were  punished  by  sentence  that  their 
heads  and  feet  should  be  tied  together,  and  that  they  should 
be  constrained  to  lie  in  this  ignominious  position,  without 
food  or  drink,  for  twenty-four  hours.  A  very  little  of  this 
medicine  was  enough  to  cool  their  hot  heads ;  and  their 
pathetic  pleadings  for  pardon,  and  their  solemn  promises 
to  do  better  in  the  future,  softened  the  hearts  of  the  au- 
thorities, and  the  rest  of  the  severe  penalty  was  remitted. 
Lister  left  the  colony  and  died  early.  Dotey  never  got 
over  his  fiery  temper;  but  he  became  an  energetic  and 
thrifty  citizen,  and  lived  on  until  1655.  James  Otis,  who 
seems  to  have  reproduced  some  of  his  characteristics,  traced 
his  ancestry  back  to  Dotey.  Besides  these,  there  were 
Prower,  Langemore,  and  Robert  Carter,  who  were  enrolled 
as  "  servants,"  and  who  died  early. 

There  were  others  of  more  distinction,  or  who,  if  they 
were  not  in  the  forefront  at  the  outset,  came,  in  the  course 
of  time,  to  be  of  great  importance  to  the  colony.  Four  of 
these  call  for  special  mention. 

Christopher  Martin  was  from  Billerica  in  Essex.  He 
was  supposed  to  have  been  about  forty  years  of  age  at  the 
time  of  his  connection  with  the  Pilgrims.     He  was  one  of 


THE    PILGRIMS  179 

the  agents  appointed  especially,  it  is  believed,  to  represent 
the  English  contingent  of  the  Pilgrim  company,  and  to 

act  in  consort  with  Weston,  Cushman,  and 
Martm  Carver,  who  conducted  the  negotiations  with 

the  Adventurers.  He  was  himself  an  Adven- 
turer. At  a  later  date,  these  other  Adventurers,  Collier, 
Hatherly,  and  Thomas,  joined  the  colony ;  but  Martin  and 
Mullins  are  the  only  Adventurers  who  sailed  in  the  May- 
flower. He  was  made  treasurer  of  the  company,  and  thus 
was  charged  with  the  duty  of  receiving  and  paying  out 
money  in  connection  with  the  migration,  and  keeping  an 
accurate  account  of  all  business  transactions.  He  was 
also  elected  "  Governor  "  of  the  ship.  This  array  of  facts 
goes  to  show  in  what  esteem  he  was  held  by  a  majority  of 
his  associates  up  to  the  time  of  the  final  sailing  of  the 
Mayflower.  At  the  last  moment,  however,  serious  dissatis- 
faction with  the  man  and  his  methods  cropped  out.  He 
was  deposed  from  his  governorship  and  remanded  to  a 
subordinate  place.  What  was  the  trouble?  Dr.  Azel 
Ames  in  his  valuable  treatise,  "  The  Mayflower  —  Her 
Log,"  makes  short  work  in  answering  this  question.  He 
hardly  ever  mentions  his  name  without  expressing  an 
opinion  of  him  which  is  by  no  means  flattering.  He  opens 
on  him  by  saying :  "  He  was  no  credit  to  the  Company, 
and  his  early  death  probably  prevented  much  vexation." 
He  follows  this  up  by  declaring  that  "  he  seems  to  have 
been  at  all  times  a  self-conceited,  arrogant,  and  unsatis- 
factory man."  For  substance,  these  statements  are  no 
doubt  true.  The  man  was  hot-headed,  impatient  of  oppo- 
sition and  restraint,  and  most  likely  fond  of  having  his  own 
way.  But,  to  say  nothing  of  Weston,  was  Cushman  a 
model  of  patience?  "  If  I  speak  to  him,"  so  Cushman 
complained  of  Martin,  "  he  flies  in  my  face."  But  with 
all  his  excellences  could  not  Cushman  show  heat  on  oc- 
casion and  strike  back?  When  one  thinks  of  the  quick 
tempers  of  Weston  and  Cushman  and  Martin,  and  the 
delicacy  of  the  business  they  had  to  transact,  and  the 
many  difficulties  under  which  they  all  labored,  one  can  but 
feel  an  increased  admiration  for  Carver,  who  had  to  meet 
it  all,  and  yet  see  that  the  enterprise  was  not  wrecked  by 


180  THE    PILGRIMS 

the  jealousies  and  squabbles  of  the  agents.  But  Martin 
was  not  so  bad  a  man  as  Dr.  Ames  represents  him.  He 
may  have  been  hard  to  get  along  with;  not  so  careful 
as  he  ought  to  have  been  in  his  bookkeeping;  far  from 
conciliatory ;  and  overbearing  in  his  assertions  of  author- 
ity. Unquestionably  he  was.  But  he  had  principles,  and 
he  was  ready  to  stand  by  them.  He  withstood  ecclesias- 
tical authorities,  "  cost  what  it  might."  He  threw  himself 
heart  and  soul  into  the  Pilgrim  cause.  He  staked  his 
life  and  his  all  on  the  issue.  What  he  might  have  been 
had  his  life  been  spared  can  be  only  conjectured.  The 
end,  however,  came  early.  He  himself,  his  wife,  and  his 
two  servants,  Prower  and  Langemore  —  the  whole  house- 
hold —  "  died  in  the  first  sickness."  He  went  hence  from 
the  Mayflower  in  less  than  a  month  after  the  landing  at 
Plymouth. 

William  Mullins,  as  recent  investigations  have  shown, 
was  from  Dorking,  in  Surrey,  near  London.     He  was  a 
tradesman  by  occupation.     He  was  one  of  the 
Mullins  most  trustworthy  and  devoted  of  the  Adven- 

turers. His  wealth  has  been  said  to  have  been 
considerable,  and  he  was  one  of  the  heaviest  subscribers 
to  the  fund  of  the  Adventurers'  Company.  His  investment 
in  the  enterprise  is  said  to  have  been  five  hundred  pounds. 
But  his  career  was  a  brief  one.  In  a  little  more  than  two 
months  after  reaching  Plymouth,  he  passed  away.  As 
the  end  drew  near,  Governor  Carver  was  sent  for,  and 
going  aboard  the  Mayflower,  he  received  by  word  of  mouth 
the  will  of  the  dying  man.  Soon  after  this  he  folded  his 
hands  and  fell  asleep.  William  White  went  to  his  reward 
on  the  same  day.  It  was  an  inexpressible  bereavement  for 
the  little  colony  to  lose  two  such  members  within  the  same 
twenty-four  hours.  The  burial  was  a  solemn  occasion. 
His  wife  soon  followed  him.  His  wife,  his  son  Joseph,  and 
Carter,  a  man-servant,  all  fell  victims  to  "  the  first  sick- 
ness." A  part  of  the  family  still  remained  in  England, 
but  Priscilla  Mullins  was  the  only  one  who  was  left  of  the 
circle  on  this  side  of  the  water.  It  was  given  to  this  fair 
maiden  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  future  of  the 


THE    PILGRIMS  181 

colony,  and  into  her  life-story  there  was  woven  the  web 
of  one  of  the  most  charming  romances  in  our  literature. 
"  Beautiful  with  her  beauty,  and  rich  with  the  wealth  of 
her  being,"  she  will  never  cease  to  be  the  fairest  type  of 
the  Puritan  maiden. 

Stephen  Hopkins  was  a  man  of  weight  in  the  colony. 
Like  many  another  man  he  had  the  faults  of  his  virtues. 
He  was  intelligent,  robust,  enterprising,  prac- 
Hopkins  tical,  quick  to  see  the  point,  and  fertile  in 
expedients ;  but  he  was  a  bit  touchy  and  not 
at  all  averse  to  a  set-to  with  anybody  who  crossed  his 
path.  For  several  years  he  was  a  member  of  the  govern- 
or's Council.  He  built  the  first  wharf  which  was  erected 
by  the  Plymouth  people.  He  was  interested  in  shipping, 
and  a  comparatively  large  owner  of  cattle  when  he  died. 
He  was  one  of  the  sturdy  company  to  venture  out  and  act 
as  adviser  in  the  first  search  for  a  suitable  place  for  settle- 
ment. It  was  at  his  house  that  Samoset  was  lodged  over 
night  when  he  first  appeared  with  his  "  Welcome  "  to  the 
Pilgrims,  and  when,  on  his  showing  a  determination  to 
remain  longer  and  the  water  being  too  low  to  take  him 
out  to  the  ship,  it  was  thought  necessary  to  entrust  him 
to  watchful  eyes  and  strong  hands.  To  some  in  the  colony 
it  was  no  doubt  a  nerve-shaking  business ;  but  Hopkins 
was  never  wanting  in  resolution  and  courage.  It  was 
Winslow  and  Hopkins,  with  Squanto  for  guide  and  inter- 
preter, who  were  sent  through  the  forests  to  see  Massa- 
soit.  A  man  weak  and  timid  would  surely  have  shrunk 
from  such  a  service. 

But  his  vigor  and  pluck  had  their  reverse  sides;  and 
there  were  occasions  when  one  could  wish  that  his  strong 
will  had  not  been  quite  so  strong,  and  his  daring  not  quite 
so  near  to  recklessness.  While  holding  office  in  the  govern- 
ing body  of  the  little  state,  he  allowed  his  anger  to  get  the 
upper  hand  of  his  discretion  and  betray  him  into  an 
assault  on  a  man,  for  which  he  was  duly  tried  and  heavily 
fined.  Eleven  years  before  the  Mayflower  sailed  on  her 
famous  voyage,  Hopkins  had  been  sentenced  to  death  by 
court  martial,  and  would  have  swung  from  the  yard-arm 


182  THE    PILGRIMS 

of  a  British  ship  had  not  his  family  interceded  and  saved 
him  from  the  ignominious  fate.  As  Goodwin  tells  the 
story,  Hopkins  was  lay  reader  to  the  chaplain  of  his  ship 
when,  in  1609,  Governor  Gates  sailed  from  England  for 
Virginia.  The  ship  was  driven  out  of  her  course  and 
wrecked  at  Bermuda.  Our  future  Pilgrim,  always  noted 
for  the  energy  of  his  opinions  and  the  fidelity  with  which 
he  adhered  to  them,  insisted  that  landing  in  Bermuda 
instead  of  Virginia  broke  the  contract  under  which  he  em- 
barked, and  that  therefore  he  was  free  to  go  as  he  pleased. 
Governor  Gates  thought  otherwise.  He  called  his  conduct 
treason,  with  results  as  just  stated.  All  through  his  life 
—  near  the  end  as  at  the  beginning  —  there  was  this 
tendency  to  be  a  law  unto  himself. 

Still  he  was  a  man  of  much  value  to  the  colony.  He 
died  in  the  same  year  that  Brewster  passed  on.  In  his 
posterity  he  has  been  greatly  honored.  One  of  his  great- 
grandsons  was  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  another  was  the  first  admiral  of  our  navy.  If  as 
admiral  he  did  not  fulfil  all  the  expectations  which  the 
brilliant  opening  of  his  career  had  awakened,  it  may  be 
that  along  with  some  of  the  eminently  praiseworthy  quali- 
ties of  his  energetic  great-grandfather  he  had  also  in- 
herited some  of  the  drawbacks  which  ran  in  his  blood. 

John  Alden  was  a  young  man  of  twenty-one  when  the 
Pilgrims,  on  arriving  at  Southampton,  found  and  hired 
him  to  enter  their  service  for  a  year.  He  was 
Alden  a  valuable  discovery.     Whatever  his  ancestry, 

or  training,  or  previous  associations,  he  soon 
became  flesh  of  their  flesh  and  bone  of  their  bone,  and 
when  the  time  for  which  he  was  employed  was  up,  instead 
of  going  back  to  his  native  land  he  was  ready  to  cast  in 
his  lot  with  them,  and  take  his  full  share  of  the  hardships 
as  well  as  the  triumphs  of  the  Pilgrims. 

Alden  was  a  cooper,  and  his  function  was  an  important 
one  to  the  colony.  At  first  flush  it  may  seem  strange  that 
this  little  company  should  have  needed  a  cooper.  But  it 
has  been  discovered  by  those  who,  like  Dr.  Griffis,  have 
investigated  the  matter  that  there  was  a  law  on  the  statute- 
books  of  England  to  the  effect  that  whoever  exported  beer 


THE    PILGRIMS  183 

should  give  bonds  obliging  him  to  bring  in  as  many  staves 
as  would  make  good  the  amount  of  material  which  had 
gone  into  the  beer  casks  which  had  been  taken  out.  The 
"  Clapboard,"  of  which  more  will  be  heard  further  on, 
were  these  staves.  A  cooper  in  those  days,  as  in  the  latter 
days  of  New  England,  was  a  man  who  could  make  barrels 
not  only,  but  also  "  rive  "  the  forest  timber  into  strips 
suitable  for  manufacturing  into  barrels.  It  was  given  to 
me  in  my  boyhood  frequently  to  witness  both  of  these 
processes  —  though  the  casks  which  were  constructed 
from  the  staves  thus  made  were  not  for  beer,  but  for  pork 
and  molasses  and  mackerel. 

Goodwin  pays  this  fine  tribute  to  Alden :  "  The  colo- 
nial cooper  soon  became  a  leader.  He  was  assistant  to 
every  governor  but  Carver,  serving  at  least  forty-three 
years ;  he  was  the  colony's  treasurer  some  thirteen  years, 
and  was  eight  times  deputy  from  Duxbury  —  sometimes 
holding  two  of  these  positions  at  once.  He  is  credited 
with  martial  tastes,  and  in  the  early  days  was  Standish's 
close  attendant.  Alden's  male  descendants  have  furnished 
a  continual  succession  of  noteworthy  soldiers  and  sailors; 
and  the  females,  to  a  striking  extent,  have  had  husbands 
of  like  character."  In  confirmation  of  this  statement,  it 
may  be  said  that  two  presidents  of  the  United  States, 
John  Adams  and  John  Quincy  Adams,  were  descendants 
of  John  Alden.  He  was  the  last  of  the  signers  of  the 
Mayflower  Compact  to  start  on  his  pilgrimage  to  the 
Great  Beyond,  and  it  was  not  until  he  was  well-nigh  four- 
score and  ten  that  he  entered  into  the  peace  which  re- 
maineth  unto  the  people  of  God. 


vn 

Coming  back  from  our  excursion  among  recent  acces- 
sions to  the  Pilgrim  Company  in  the  list  of  passengers 
on  board  the  ship,  it  will  not  be  out  of  place, 
'rtie  while  she  is  still  pressing  on  to  her  destina- 

Mayflower     tion,  to  look  a  little  into  her  record  and  say  a 
few  words  about  the  Mayflower. 
The    story   of   the   vessel   is   of   special   interest.      The 
Speedwell,  as  we  have  noted,  had  been  purchased  by  the 


184  THE    PILGRIMS 

colonists  both  for  the  present  exigency  and  for  future 
use ;  but  the  Mayflower  was  chartered  for  this  particular 
service.  It  is,  however,  about  the  hired  vessel,  and  not 
the  one  they  owned,  that  historic  interest  gathers  and  the 
charm  of  a  stern  but  fascinating  romance  evermore  lingers. 
Poets  will  never  cease  to  illuminate  their  verse,  orators  and 
essayists  to  round  out  their  periods,  and  students  of  the 
past  to  emphasize  their  lessons  with  the  name  of  this  ship. 
No  war-ship  which  ever  sailed,  bearing  splendid  heroes  to 
splendid  victories,  shines  with  such  a  glory. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  neither  the  name  of  the  May- 
flower nor  the  Speedwell  is  ever  mentioned  in  the  narratives 
of  Bradford  and  Winslow.  With  these  writers  the  desig- 
nation is  the  "  larger  "  and  the  "  lesser  "  vessel.  It  is  not 
until  we  come  upon  it  in  the  "  New  England  Memorial " 
of  Nathaniel  Morton,  which  did  not  appear  until  1669, 
that  we  find  the  larger  ship  called  the  Mayflower.  This 
has  led  more  than  one  writer  to  ask  for  the  authority  on 
which  these  names  of  the  two  ships  rest.  Morton's  au- 
thority would  be  enough;  fpr  he  caught  up  and  handed 
on  what  must  have  been  a  trustworthy  tradition.  But 
there  is  a  testimony  too  convincing  to  be  questioned.  It 
is  found  in  the  official  records  of  the  Old  Colony.  In  1623, 
allotments  of  land  were  made  to  the  colonists.  In  one 
of  the  headings  of  these  allotments  which  were  made  to 
the  several  groups  of  the  colonists  we  have  this  clause, 
"  which  came  over  in  the  Mayflower"  This  is  an  official 
record,  made  in  1623;  and  it  settles  the  question  of  the 
name  beyond  any  peradventure. 

The  Mayflower  was  small  —  measured  by  modern 
standards,  surprisingly  small;  yet  she  was  a  hundred  and 
eighty  tons  burden.  Her  capacity,  therefore,  was  much 
greater  than  that  of  many  of  the  craft  used  by  the  in- 
trepid and  hardy  mariners  of  those  and  earlier  days  in 
making  their  passages  from  continent  to  continent. 

As  early  as  the  reign  of  Henry  VII,  or  not  far  from 
four  centuries  ago,  a  vessel  was  built  in  England  with  a 
tonnage  as  high  as  one  thousand.  But  this  was  an  extraor- 
dinary achievement.  The  vast  majority  were  not  only 
smaller,  but  very  much  smaller.     The  Santa  Maria,  in 


THE    PILGRIMS  185 

which  Columbus  sailed  at  once  to  this  new  world  and  to 
an  undying  fame,  is  estimated  to  have  been  of  not  over 
a  hundred  tons.  The  Nina  and  the  Pinta  were  of  con- 
siderably less  capacity.  Like  Columbus,  Martin  Frobisher 
had  three  ships  when  he  set  out  on  his  first  voyage  of 
discovery ;  but  the  Gabriel,  which  was'  the  largest,  regis- 
tered only  thirty-five  tons.  The  largest  of  the  three  vessels 
with  which  Cartier  undertook  the  second  and  most  fruit- 
ful of  his  voyages  in  1535,  and  which  he  took  as  far  up 
the  St.  Lawrence  as  the  marvelously  picturesque  locality 
which  was  subsequently  to  be  known  as  Quebec,  was  not 
more  than  a  hundred  and  twenty  tons  burden.  Of  the 
two  ships  which  bore  Pontgrave,  the  Breton  merchant, 
and  the  beloved  Champlain,  the  founder  of  Quebec  and  the 
father  of  New  France,  and  their  associates  in  what  Park- 
man  calls  an  "  adventurous  knight-errantry,"  across  the 
Atlantic  in  1603,  one  was  of  fifteen  and  the  other  of  only 
twelve  tons  capacity.  As  size  then  ruled,  the  Mayflower 
was  not  an  exceptionally  small  vessel,  but  was,  in  fact, 
larger  than  any  other  here  mentioned,  since  the  big  ship 
of  Henry's  time. 

But  as  has  been  well  observed  by  other  writers,  these 
ships  of  Columbus  and  Frobisher  and  Cartier  and  Cham- 
plain  were  officered  and  manned  by  crews  who  knew  the  sea 
and  the  hardships  and  perils  of  the  sea,  and  were  not 
daunted  by  wind  and  storm  and  tossing  billows.  On  board 
the  Mayflower  were  not  only  men,  but  women  and  children 
—  women  to  the  number  of  twenty-nine,  and  children,  male 
and  female,  to  the  number  of  twelve  —  who  were  unused 
to  a  seafaring  life,  and  to  whom  their  limited  variety  of 
food  and  their  crowded  quarters  must  have  become  ex- 
tremely irksome.  For  though  their  ship,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  comparatively  large,  yet  when  to  a  passenger  list  of 
one  hundred  and  two  there  were  added  not  less  than  twenty- 
five  who  belonged  to  the  ship,  it  will  be  readily  inferred 
there  could  have  been  only  narrow  space  for  each  in- 
dividual. 


186  THE    PILGRIMS 


VIII 


All  went  well  until  the  good  ship  was  half-way  across 
the  Atlantic.     The  wind  had  been  fair,  the  weather  fine, 

and  the  only  discomfort  worth  mentioning 
Trying  ex-  haci  been  the  inevitable  seasickness  of  some 
periences        Qf  the  passengers. 

and  inter-  gu^    sm0oth    sailing   was   not   to    continue, 

esting  in-      Fierce  storms  arose.     The  wind  blew  a  gale, 
cidents  »phe  waters  were  lashed  into  fury.     The  vessel 

was  strained.  "  One  of  the  main  beams  in  the 
midship  was  bowed  and  cracked,  which  put  them  in  some 
fear  that  the  ship  could  not  be  able  to  perform  the  voyage." 

The  officers  were  put  on  their  mettle.  The 
The  strained  leaks  were  threatening.  The  sailors  muttered, 
beam  anj  their  discontent  and  evident  anxiety  must 

have  occasioned  not  a  little  misgiving  and 
alarm  on  the  part  of  the  more  timid  of  the  company.  The 
strongest  hearted  of  them  all  could  not  have  been  without 
grave  apprehensions.  Mishap  after  mishap  had  overtaken 
them;  was  their  brave  little  craft  now  to  founder  and 
carry  them  all  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea  ?  At  first  there  was 
excitement  and  difference  of  opinion;  but  after  careful 
examination  the  master  and  others  said  they  knew  the  ship 
to  be  strong  and  firm  under  water ;  "  and  for  the  buckling  of 
the  main  beam,  there  was  a  great  iron  screw  the  passengers 
brought  out  of  Holland,  which  would  raise  the  beam  into 
its  place."  Fortunate  was  the  man  —  fortunate  for  him- 
self and  fortunate  for  his  associates  —  who  thought  of  the 
screw  and  brought  it  along!  God  was  in  the  thought  as 
He  was  in  the  storm.  Dr.  Ames  is  of  opinion  that  the 
bent  and  cracked  beam  could  have  been  lifted  up  and 
restored  to  its  place  by  a  system  of  wedges.  Possibly.  But 
the  simple  quick-working  screw  was  much  better.  It  could 
be  operated  effectively  in  the  storm ;  and  at  that  critical 
moment,  when  the  question  of  going  forward  or  returning 
had  to  be  settled,  the  screw  may  have  saved  the  day  for  the 
future  of  the  Pilgrims.  "  They  committed  themselves  to 
the  will  of  God,  and  resolved  to  proceed."    Storm  followed 


THE    PILGRIMS  187 

storm.  Sometimes  for  days  together  "  the  winds  were  so 
fierce  and  the  seas  so  high  "  that  no  sails  could  be  spread, 
and  the  ship  had  to  be  left  to  drift  under  bare  poles.  It 
made  no  difference.  Through  fair  weather  and  foul,  guided 
by  a  definite  purpose  and  drawn  by  an  unseen  attraction 
the  Mayflower  held  steadily  to  her  westward  course. 

In  one  of  the  severe  storms  which  the  vessel  encountered, 
John  Howland  came  near  losing  his  life.  In  a  lurch  of  the 
ship  he  was  thrown  into  the  sea ;  but  "  it 
Howland  pleased  God,"  so  Bradford  tells  us,  "  that  he 
overboard  caUght  hold  of  the  top-sail  halliards,  which 
hung  overboard,  and  ran  out  at  length;  yet 
he  held  his  hold,  though  he  was  sundry  fathoms  under 
water,  till  he  was  hauled  up  by  the  same  rope  to  the  brim  of 
the  water,  and  then  with  a  boat  hook  and  other  means  got 
into  the  ship  again,  and  his  life  saved ;  and  though  he  was 
something  ill  with  it;  yet  he  lived  many  years  after,  and 
became  a  profitable  member  both  in  Church  and  Common- 
wealth." Very  true.  For  John  Carver  would  have  lost 
a  valuable  assistant,  the  Mayflower  Compact  a  sturdy 
signer,  Elizabeth  Tilley  a  devoted  and  faithful  husband, 
and  a  very  numerous  and  reputable  posterity  would  have 
been  without  an  ancestor  had  not  young  Howland  "  held  his 
hold,"  and  been  pulled  out  of  those  "  sundry  fathoms  "  of 
seething  waters  and  "  boat-hooked  "  into  the  ship. 


IX 

There  were  two  deaths  on  the  way  over.     One  was  that 
of  a  seaman.    His  going  evidently  made  a  deep  impression. 
Bradford  calls  it  "  a  special  work  of  God's 
Shadow  providence."    He  was  "  a  proud  and  very  pro- 

and  sun-        fane  young  man."     He  seems  to  have  taken  a 
shine  peculiar  delight  in  taunting  and  tormenting 

those  who  were  seasick.  If  they  remonstrated 
he  swore  at  them.  Nor  did  he  hesitate  to  tell  them  that  "  he 
hoped  to  help  cast  half  of  them  overboard  before  they  came 
to  their  journey's  end."  But  "  before  they  came  half  seas 
over,"  this  boisterous  young  fellow,  with  his  "  lusty,  able 


188  THE    PILGRIMS 

body,"  and  his  "  haughty  "  spirit,  and  his  tongue  given  to 
"  cursing,"  was  smitten  with  "  a  grievous  disease,"  from 
which  he  failed  to  rally,  "  and  so  was  himself  the  first  that 
was  thrown  overboard."  It  is  not  strange  that  this  tale 
was  made  to  yield  a  moral. 

The  other  death  was  one  of  the  company.  William 
Butten,  a  servant  of  Samuel  Fuller,  passed  away  when  only 
a  few  days  out  from  land.  As  if,  however,  it  was  a  special 
purpose  of  Providence  to  maintain  the  count  of  these  pious 
voyagers  unbroken  to  the  end,  a  son,  who,  in  the  name 
Oceanus,  was  to  carry  with  him  as  long  as  he  lived  a  strik- 
ing reminder  of  the  circumstances  in  which  he  had  first 
opened  his  eyes  to  the  light,  had  been  born  into  the  family 
of  Stephen  Hopkins;  and  thus  the  number,  one  hundred 
and  two,  which,  like  certain  numbers  to  the  Jews,  ought  to 
be  held  sacred  by  Congregationalists,  was  kept  good. 
Singularly  enough,  when  this  number  had  been  increased 
by  the  birth,  on  board  the  ship  while  she  lay  at  anchor,  of 
Peregrine  White,  the  first  English  child  born  in  New 
England,  to  one  hundred  and  three,  it  was  quickly  and 
painfully  reduced  to  one  hundred  and  two  through  the 
death  by  drowning  of  Dorothy  Bradford,  the  wife  of 
William  Bradford,  while  he  was  away  with  the  last  explor- 
ing party. 


Up  to  the  point  where  signs  of  land  began  to  appear  the 
Mayflower  had  had  some  rough  experiences.     To  many  of 

the  passengers  the  voyage  must  have  seemed 
Off  Cape  long  and  trying.  As  we  have  seen,  violent 
Cod  gales  smote  them,  accidents  befell  them,  and 

the  days  and  weeks  wore  on  wearily.  Still,  in 
what  happened  to  the  ship  and  her  freight  of  men  and 
women,  both  as  respects  length  of  time  in  crossing  the  sea 
and  roughness  of  weather,  there  was  nothing  exceptional. 
The  vessel,  which  nineteen  years  later  bore  Madame  de  la 
Petrie  and  her  Ursuline  companions  in  a  service  to  which 
they  had  dedicated  themselves  and  their  all,  and  the  young 
nuns  who  had  been  sent  out  to  found  the  hospital  which  a 


THE    PILGRIMS  189 

famous  niece  of  Richelieu  had  endowed,  was  seventy-two 
days  in  making  the  passage  from  Dieppe  to  Tadousac. 
Fogs  and  storms  and  icebergs  conspired  to  hinder  prog- 
ress ;  and  once  it  seemed  as  if  the  little  boat  must  go  down 
and  carry  all  to  a  watery  grave. 

Comparisons,  however,  while  moderating  ideas  and 
checking  exaggerated  statements,  do  not  lift  burdens  nor 
soften  pangs.  We  know  that  the  passengers  on  board  the 
Mayflower  had  to  go  through  a  severe  and  courage-test- 
ing ordeal  in  their  late  autumn  trip  across  the  Atlantic. 
It  must  have  been  like  the  dawning  of  a  new,  bright  day 
after  a  night  of  sullen  darkness  and  tempest  to  discover 
tokens  of  land,  and  to  realize  that  the  shores  of  the  New 
World  which  were  beckoning  them  to  its  freedom  and  its 
opportunities  were  not  far  away. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  Friday,  November  twentieth  — 
so,  after  having  corrected  evident  mistakes  made  by  some 
of  the  chroniclers  of  the  event  and  reconciled  conflicting 
statements,  the  best  authorities  have  concluded  —  the 
wished-for  coast  was  sighted.  The  ship  was  off  Cape  Cod. 
The  captain  probably  knew  where  he  was.  Indeed,  Brad- 
ford says,  "  The  which  being  made  and  certainly  known 
to  be  it,  they  were  not  a  little  joyful."  Other  masters, 
Gosnold  and  Smith,  Waymouth  and  Hudson,  and  many 
besides,  had  sailed  these  waters,  and  given  such  descrip- 
tions of  the  headlands  and  bays,  that  an  experienced  sea- 
faring man  could  not  well  mistake  the  locality. 


XI 

But  this  was  not  thought  to  be  the  right  spot  at  which 
to  make  the  landing.     The  plan  was  "to  find  some  place 

about  Hudson's  River  for  their  habitation." 
Where  to  Hence  "  after  some  deliberation  had  amongst 
land  themselves   and  with  the  master  of  the  ship 

they  tacked  about  and  resolved  to  stand  for 
the  southward."  At  the  start  the  weather  was  good  and 
the  wind  was  fair ;  and  had  these  conditions  continued  the 
run  to  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  could  not  have  been  a 


190  THE    PILGRIMS 

long  one.  But  the  ship,  already  strained  and  weakened, 
was  on  a  treacherous  coast  in  a  treacherous  month  of  the 
year.  At  the  end  of  a  half  day  the  wind  failed,  and  the 
captain  and  his  company  found  themselves  "  amongst 
dangerous  shoals  and  roaring  breakers ;  and  they  were  so 
far  entangled  therewith  as  they  conceived  themselves  in 
great  danger."  They  "  put  about  "  and  bore  back  again 
to  the  cape,  "  and  thought  themselves  happy  to  get  out  of 
those  dangers  before  night  overtook  them,  as  by  God's 
providence  they  did." 

It  has  been  asserted  on  early  authority,  and  generally 
believed,  that  Captain  Jones  was  bribed  by  the  Dutch  to  see 
to  it  that  the  Pilgrims  did  not  land  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Hudson  River.  Nathaniel  Morton,  in  his  "  New  England's 
Memorial,"  issued  in  1669,  asserts,  and  he  repeats  and 
emphasizes  the  assertion,  that  Jones  was  "  fraudently 
hired "  "  to  dissappoint  them  in  their  going  thither." 
"  Of  this  plot  betwixt  the  Dutch  and  Master  Jones  "  he 
avowed  that  he  "  had  late  and  certain  intelligence."  This 
statement,  so  positive  and  unqualified,  has  been  widely 
accepted  by  subsequent  writers.  Without  going  very  much 
into  the  controversy  it  seems  to  me  only  just  to  say  that 
my  judgment  falls  in  unhesitatingly  with  the  conclusion 
reached  by  those  who  have  affirmed  "  that  the  Dutch  could 
not  have  bribed  Captain  Jones." 

There  is  more  plausibility  in  the  suggestion,  or  rather 
positive  avowal  of  Ames,  that  there  was  a  conspiracy  in 
which,  not  the  Dutch,  but  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  and 
Captain  Jones  were  the  principal  parties.  Gorges  was  a 
man  of  intelligence  and  of  positive  and  commanding  influ- 
ence. He  was  deeply  interested  in  New  England  affairs. 
Master  Jones  was  "  the  very  willing  and  subservient  ally 
and  tool  of  Gorges,  and  had  been  such  for  years."  The 
Dutch  had  absolutely  no  motive  for  trying  to  prevent  the 
Pilgrims  from  settling  in  what  was  popularly  supposed  to 
be  their  territory.  Gorges  and  his  associates  had  every 
motive  for  attracting  settlements  farther  north.  The  pur- 
pose was,  "  if  there  was  a  conspiracy,"  "  to  secure  these 
planters  as  colonists  "  for  their  own  lands.  Gorges  and 
his   "  Council   for   New   England "   had   failed   in   their  f 


THE    PILGRIMS  191 

attempts  to  found  colonies  in  the  New  World.  Failure  was 
inevitable  in  view  of  the  material  used  —  "a  somewhat 
notable  mixture  of  two  of  the  worst  elements  of  society  — 
convicts  and  broken-down  '  gentlemen.'  "  These  Leyden 
people  were  of  another  sort  and  would  not  fail  them.  Hence 
the  bold  scheme  "  by  which  the  Pilgrim  Colony  was  to  be 
stolen  bodily  "  and  set  down  in  the  wilderness  where  it  would 
do  the  conspirators  the  most  good. 

The  proofs  brought  forward  to  establish  this  contention 
are  hardly  convincing.  It  is  easier  to  accept  the  facts 
which  lie  open  to  view  on  the  face  of  the  statements  made 
by  those  close  at  hand  and  most  deeply  concerned  in  the 
issue.  Captain  Jones  was  no  saint.  He  was  not  over- 
charged with  the  milk  of  human  kindness.  He  was  not 
crossing  seas  and  facing  storms  in  the  spirit  of  a  philan- 
thropist. He  was  an  old  sea-dog  patterned  after  the  type 
of  his  day.  It  is  no  doubt  true  that  his  record  was  not  to 
his  credit.  But  when  we  think  of  the  real  perils  of  the  sit- 
uation there  in  the  shoals  off  Monomoy,  and  what  a  prud- 
ent master  would  surely  do,  and  when  the  statement  made 
by  Bradford,  who  had  amplest  opportunity  at  the  time  of 
writing  his  "  History,"  to  know  all  that  was  to  be  known  in 
a  matter  of  this  kind,  are  carefully  weighed,  there  seems  to 
be  no  solid  ground  on  which  to  base  the  charge  so  long 
lodged  against  Jones  of  having  conspired  with  the  Dutch, 
or  with  Gorges,  or  anybody  else  to  defeat  the  aims  of  the 
Pilgrims.  It  may  be  that  this  was  another  of  the  many 
instances  where  the  wrath  of  man  is  made  to  praise  the 
Lord;  but  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  whether  through 
treachery,  or  by  accident,  or  under  the  direct  providence  of 
God,  the  landing  was  made  where,  though  the  immediate 
outlook  was  stern  and  forbidding,  the  best  opportunities 
for  individual  action  were  open,  and  the  largest  results  of 
freedom  and  righteousness  were  possible. 


192  THE    PILGRIMS 


XII 

On   Saturday,   November  twenty-first,   the  valiant   but 
weather-beaten  ship  rounded  Long  Point  and 
Safe  at  \ei   gQ   her   anchors   within   what  is   now   the 

anchor  harbor  of  Provincetown.     She  was  safely  shel- 

tered at  last. 

"And  there  the  Mayflower,  folding  up  her  wings, 
Like  a  tired  sea-bird,  round  her  anchor  swings." 

Not  quite,  but  almost,  four  months  had  been  exhausted 
in  getting  from  their  starting-point  in  Holland  to  the 
borders  of  the  country  they  sought.  Another  month  of 
which  we  are  to  take  note  must  pass  in  prayer  and  eager 
watching  and  wearisome  exploring  and  earnest  consulta- 
tion before  a  site  for  settlement  could  be  definitely  fixed. 
Still  it  was  much  for  these  Pilgrims  to  have  their  backs 
turned  on  the  wide  swelling  ocean,  and  their  feet  again 
planted  on  the  "  firm  and  stable  earth  —  their  proper 
element."  Whatever  troubles  might  be  in  store  for  them 
in  the  days  to  come,  the  book  of  their  past  troubles  was  a 
closed  volume.  They  were  in  a  new  environment,  and  they 
were  to  live  their  lives  under  new  conditions. 

When  it  was  all  over,  and  their  sails  were  furled,  and  the 
winds  from  the  shore  were  bringing  them  the  refreshing 
odors  of  pine  and  juniper  and  sassafras,  it  is  easy  to 
imagine  the  exceeding  and  grateful  gladness  in  which  the 
hearts  of  these  devout  souls  swelled,  and  the  promptness 
with  which  they  fell  on  their  knees  and  thanked  God.  One 
can  easily  imagine  the  intense  fervor  with  which  they 
acknowledged  the  guiding  hand  and  protecting  care  of  the 
Almighty,  and  expressed  their  thanks  for  signal  deliv- 
erances from  dangers  and  miseries.  They  did  not  wait 
until  "  they  trod  the  wintry  strand  "  before  sounding  their 
notes  of  recognition  and  praise;  but  ere  they  set  foot  on 
the  coveted  shore,  "  with  prayer  and  psalm  they  wor- 
shiped "  God. 


X 

AN    EVENTFUL    MONTH 


And  the  heavy  night  hung  dark 

The  hills  and  waters  o'er, 
When  a  band  of  exiles  moored  their  bark 

On  the  wild  New  England  shore. 

Felicia  Hemans. 

New  Plymouth  was  not  built  and  peopled  by  persons  wholly  indepen- 
dent of  each  other.  .  .  .  They  came  there  a  united  body  of  men,  bound 
together  by  solemn  compact,  men  of  one  heart  and  one  mind,  intent  on  the 
same  purpose,  and  that  a  holy  one.—  Joseph  Hunter. 

Such  men  make  not  only  the  true  church  but  the  true  state. 

John  D.  Long. 

In  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower  not  only  was  the  foundation-stone  of 
republican  institutions  on  this  continent  laid,  but  the  first  New  England 
town-meeting  was  held  and  the  first  elective  officer  chosen  by  the  will  of  a 
majority. — William  T.  Davis. 

In  New  England  the  Puritan  theocracy  died  almost  at  birth ;  but  the  free 
government  of  Plymouth,  Dorchester,  Massachusetts,  Maine,  and  finally  of 
all  in  one,  blossomed  into  the  free  republic  that  has  become  the  first  great 
power  in  the  world. —  Curtis  Guild,  Jr. 

O  noble  commencement  of  the  foundations  of  an  enterprise,  like  which 
the  world  never  saw  before,  nor  probably  will  ever  see  again !  Within  half 
an  hour's  sail  of  the  .  .  .  place  where  they  were  to  abide  all  the  rest  of  their 
pilgrimage,  they  moored  at  the  island,  and  would  not  again  set  sail  that  day, 
or  take  an  oar  in  hand,  or  do  aught  of  worldly  work,  because  it  was  the 
Lord's  Day. —  George  B.  Cheever. 

It  is  on  account  of  the  virtue  displayed  in  its  institution  and  manage- 
ment, and  of  the  great  consequences  to  which  it  ultimately  led,  that  the 
Colony  of  Plymouth  claims  the  attention  of  Mankind. 

John  G.  Palfret. 


AN    EVENTFUL   MONTH 

IT  was  a  month  to  a  day  from  the  time  the  Mayflower 
dropped  her  anchor  within  the  shelter  of  Cape  Cod  to 
the  time  the  Pilgrims  set  foot  on  Plymouth  Rock.  The 
month  was  a  strenuous  one,  full  of  labors,  anxieties,  watch- 
ings,  searchings,  sorrows,  baffled  hopes,  and  final  triumphs. 
The  things  said  and  done  within  this  period  make  an 
illuminating  chapter  in  the  history  of  our  forefathers.  The 
way  they  had  in  emergencies  of  falling  back  on  fundamen- 
tal principles,  their  habit  of  sturdy  application  to  what- 
ever business  might  be  in  hand,  the  courage  with  which 
they  faced  dangers  and  rose  superior  to  disappointments 
and  griefs,  and  their  unflinching  loyalty  to  divine  institu- 
tions and  commands,  have  splendid  illustration  in  the 
record  of  those  few  weeks,  and  deserve  careful  study. 


This  eventful  month  opened  with  the  drafting  and  sign- 
ing of  the  Mayflower  Compact.  The  transaction  took  place 
down  in  the  narrow  cabin  of  the  ship  on  the 
The  May-      forenoon  of  the  day  on  which  the  harbor  was 
flower  entered  and   sails   furled.     When  the  anchor 

Compact  was  dropped  the  Pilgrims  had  a  civil  constitu- 
tion and  a  government.  They  were  an  incon- 
siderable people,  small  in  numbers,  without  wealth  or  stand- 
ing, and  remote  from  all  civilized  nations ;  but  they  were  a 
state.  They  had  an  organic  law,  written  out  and  sub- 
scribed by  their  own  hands,  chosen  rulers  and  a  policy. 
Some  day  this  state,  insignificant  and  unknown  as  it  then 
was,  might  be  heard  from,  back  on  the  other  side  of  the 


196  THE    PILGRIMS 

waters!     Possibly  George  III,  when  his  turn  should  come 
to  sit  on  the  throne,  might  have  to  take  note  of  it ! 

There  were  two  reasons  for  drawing  up  and  adopting 
this  compact. 

The  first  was  that  there  were  ominous  whis- 
Why  the  perings  and  muffled  threats  of  insubordina- 
compact  tion  and  a  break-up  of  the  colony.     This  is 

was  Bradford's  explanation  of  the  transaction.     It 

formed  was  "  occasioned  partly  by  the  discontented  and 

mutinous  speeches  that  some  of  the  strangers 
amongst  them  had  let  fall  from  them  in  the  ship.  .  .  .  That 
when  they  came  ashore  they  would  use  their  own  liberty." 
These  "  strangers  amongst  them  "  were  some  of  the  acces- 
sions to  the  colony  which  had  been  made  at  Southampton. 
Having  joined  the  company  in  the  expectation  that  they 
were  to  land  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,  they  may  have 
claimed  that  landing  somewhere  else  absolved  them  from 
their  obligation  to  the  company.  It  will  be  recalled  that 
this  was  the  ground  taken  by  Hopkins  when  he  had  shipped 
to  go  to  Virginia  and  was  cast  away  on  the  island  of  Ber- 
muda. Hopkins  was  one  of  the  Southampton  contingent, 
and  he  was  not  a  man  to  hide  his  light  under  a  bushel; 
but  even  though  he  himself  had  kept  still  about  it,  others 
might  have  known  of  his  opinions  and  conduct.  Billington 
was  powder  which  any  little  spark  would  inflame.  At  any 
rate,  it  was  well  to  nip  insubordination  in  the  bud. 

The  second  reason  was  that,  unless  something  of  this 
sort  were  done,  the  colony  would  be  left  without  law.  Until 
this  compact  was  adopted  there  was  no  authority  to  which 
appeal  could  be  made  to  preserve  order  and  enforce  justice. 
This  again  is  Bradford's  explanation :  "  For  none  had 
power  to  command  them,  the  patent  they  had  being  for 
Virginia,  and  not  for  New  England,  which  belonged  to 
another  government,  with  which  the  Virginia  Company  had 
nothing  to  do."  Hence  the  instrument.  For  these  astute 
statesmen  concluded  that  an  act  of  this  nature,  drawn 
up  and  signed  by  all  the  responsible  persons  of  the  com- 
pany, especially  when  all  circumstances  were  duly  consid- 
ered, "  might  be  as  firm  as  any  patent,  and  in  some  respects 
more  sure."     John  Pierce,  one  of  the  Adventurers,  held  a 


THE    PILGRIMS  197 

patent  in  the  interest  of  the  colonists;  but  this  patent 
was  from  the  London  Virginia  Company ;  and  the  charter 
of  this  company  covered  no  rights  to  territory  on  which 
the  Pilgrims  were  about  to  land.  On  the  contrary,  this 
whole  region  was  under  the  control  of  the  company  of 
which  Ferdinando  Gorges  was  the  leading  spirit.  This 
company  had  been  known  as  the  Second  or  Plymouth 
Virginia  Company;  but  it  had  been  changed  or  merged 
into  "  The  Council  for  New  England."  It  is  this  fact  that 
the  territory  to  be  occupied  had  been  granted  to  the  com- 
pany with  which  Gorges  was  so  closely  identified,  which 
lends  color  to  the  charge  strenuously  maintained  by  Dr. 
Ames  that  the  bribing  of  Captain  Jones  was  not  by  the 
Dutch,  but  by  Gorges.  As  has  been  said  already,  it  does 
not  seem  to  me  that  Jones  was  bribed  at  all.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  however,  the  Pilgrims  knew  of  no  authority  which 
they  could  invoke,  and  that  if  they  had  any  law  they  must 
make  it  for  themselves.  This  is  what  they  did  —  made  a 
law  for  themselves. 

The  Mayflower  Compact  is  an  immortal  document.  It 
is  justly  counted  one  of  the  most  important  contributions 
ever  made  to  the  civic  thought  of  the  world. 
Text  of  the  The  tender  reverence  in  which  it  ought  to  be 
compact.  read  will  be  increased  if  we  remember  that  of 
the  forty-one  who  affixed  their  names  to  it, 
twenty  were  dead  before  the  end  of  the  following  March. 
Carver  was  not  one  of  the  twenty,  but  he  soon  followed. 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.  We,  whose  names  are 
under-written,  the  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread  sovereign 
Lord,  King  James,  by  the  grace  of  God,  of  Great  Britain, 
France,  and  Ireland ;   Defender  of  the  Faith,  etc. 

"  Having  undertaken  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  advance- 
ment of  the  Christian  Faith,  and  honor  of  our  king  and 
country,  a  voyage  to  plant  the  first  Colony  in  the  northern 
part  of  Virginia;  do  by  these  presents  solemnly  and  mu- 
tually, in  the  presence  of  God  and  one  of  another,  covenant 
and  combine  ourselves  together  into  a  Civil  Body  Politic, 
for  our  better  ordering  and  preservation  and  furtherence 
of  the  ends  aforesaid ;  and,  by  virtue  hereof,  to  enact,  con- 
stitute, and  frame  such  just  and  equal  laws,  ordinances, 


198  THE    PILGRIMS 

acts,  constitutions  and  offices,  from  time  to  time,  as  shall 
be  thought  most  meet  and  convenient,  for  the  general  good 
of  the  Colony,  unto  which  we  promise  all  due  submission 
and  obedience. 

"  In  witness  whereof  we  have  hereunder  subscribed  our 
names.  Cape  Cod,  the  11th  of  November,  in  the  year 
of  the  reign  of  our  Sovereign  Lord,  King  James,  of  Eng- 
land, France,  and  Ireland,  the  eighteenth ;  and  of  Scotland, 
the  fifty-fourth,  Anno  Domini,  1620." 

This  narrow  cabin  was  indeed  the  "  Cradle  of  a  Com- 
monwealth ; "  and  it  was  more.  Bancroft  declares  that 
"  popular  constitutional  liberty "  had  its 
Meaning  y^  [n  the  Mayflower  Compact.  Goldwin 
of  the  Smith  says :  "  It  is  true  that  this  covenant  was 

compact  not  a  political  manifesto;    it  is  not  less  true 

that  it  heralded  a  polity  of  self-government, 
and  may  take  rank  among  the  great  documents  of  his- 
tory." This  distinguishes  precisely  between  what  the  in- 
strument was  and  what  it  was  not,  and  characterizes  it  with 
a  nice  accuracy.  It  was  not  a  "  political  manifesto,"  such 
as  a  scheming  cabal,  or  a  league  of  true  and  patriotic  revo- 
lutionists might  issue ;  but  it  was  a  "  polity  of  self-govern- 
ment." These  men  were  imposing  equal  laws  on  all  and 
giving  to  all  an  equal  chance.  They  were  setting  up 
Democracy.  They  were  organizing  society  on  the  basis  of 
common  rights.  They  were  enacting  political  equality. 
They  were  insuring  the  stability  and  order  of  government 
by  making  each  subject  a  part  of  it.  They  were  conquer- 
ing their  prejudices  and  delivering  a  fatal  blow  against 
class  distinctions.  It  has  been  claimed  that  age  and  not 
social  standing  was  the  determining  factor  in  the  signa- 
tures made  to  the  compact.  Age,  as  in  all  the  relations 
and  transactions  of  life,  had  to  do  with  the  signing,  of 
course,  but  those  signatures,  one  after  another,  were  a 
thrust  straight  in  the  face  of  social  pretensions.  It  was 
man  for  man,  and  the  simple  manhood  in  each  man  was 
what  counted.  It  was  a  recognition,  clear  and  simple, 
that  man 

"...  has  a  right  because  he  is  a  man, 
And  not  because  he  is  a  kind  of  man." 


THE    PILGRIMS  199 

Some  were  better  than  others ;  some  were  more  intelligent ; 
some  were  richer;  some  surpassed  others  in  wisdom  and 
experience  and  capacity  to  rule  their  little  state;  but  all 
were  recognized,  and  their  rights  were  duly  protected.  The 
liberty  of  which  poets  through  the  ages  had  been  dreaming, 
and  about  which  philosophers  had  been  speculating,  and 
over  which  tyrants  had  been  striding  with  ruthless  disdain, 
and  for  which  patriots  had  been  dying  —  the  liberty  which 
is  regulated  by  law,  but  which  under  the  regulation  loses 
none  of  its  sweetness  or  vitality,  had  here  emergence  and 
gracious  crowning.  The  question  ceased  to  be,  "  Is  he  mas- 
ter, or  is  he  servant?  "  and  became,  "  Is  he  a  man?  "  Car- 
ver and  Howland,  Winslow  and  Soule,  Hopkins  and  Dotey, 
[Fuller,  the  beloved  physician,  and  Alden  the  cooper,  sub- 
scribed to  the  compact  on  the  basis  of  a  common  standing. 
The  central  idea  of  it  all  was  mutual  rights  and  obliga- 
tions —  the  right  of  each  to  his  own  individual  liberty, 
and  to  a  voice  in  regulating  affairs  which  were  common  to 
all  alike  and  in  determining  the  public  policy;  and  the 
obligation  of  each  to  use  his  liberty  as  not  abusing  it,  and 
to  subordinate  his  mere  selfish  aims  to  the  common  good, 
and  to  make  of  their  body  politic  a  genuine  human  brother- 
hood. The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  observation. 
Those  obscure  statesmen  down  in  the  cabin  of  the  May- 
flower were  beginning  to  write,  and  to  teach  the  world  to 
write  Man  with  a  capital  letter. 


II 

The  ship  was  at  anchor  and  in  a  safe  harbor.      There 
was  no  imminent  danger  to  be  feared  from  storms  and 

raging  seas. 
Seeking  a  Nevertheless,  the  situation  was  forlorn.     It 

site  for  js  only  in  a  dull  or  selfish  mood  that  one  can 

settlement  escape  the  pathos  there  is  in  Bradford's  words 
as  he  describes  the  state  in  which  they  were  at 
the  critical  hour  when  the  voyage  was  behind  them,  but  all 
was  dark  and  uncertain  before  them.  "  But  here  I  cannot 
but  stay  and  make  a  pause,  and  stand  half  amazed  at  this 


200  THE    PILGRIMS 

poor  people's  present  condition.  .  .  .  They  had  no  friends 
to  welcome  them,  nor  inns  to  entertain  or  refresh  their 
weather-beaten  bodies,  no  houses  or  much  less 
The  imme-  towns  to  repair  to,  to  seek  for  succor.  .  .  . 
diate  out-  jt  was  winter,  and  they  that  know  the  winters 
look  of  the  country  know  them  to  be  sharp  and  vio- 

lent, and  subject  to  cruel  and  fierce  storms,  dan- 
gerous to  travel  to  known  places,  much  more  to  search  an 
unknown  coast.  Besides,  what  could  they  see  but  a  hideous 
and  desolate  wilderness,  full  of  wild  beasts  and  wild  men? 
.  .  .  What  multitudes  there  might  be  of  them,  they  knew 
not.  Which  way  soever  they  turned  their  eyes  —  save  up- 
ward to  the  heavens  —  they  could  have  little  solace  or 
content  in  respect  to  any  outward  objects.  All  things 
stared  upon  them  with  a  weather-beaten  face;  and  the 
whole  country,  full  of  woods  and  thickets,  represented  a 
wild  and  savage  hue."  These  words  outline  the  situation 
exactly  as  it  was.  It  is  to  be  remembered,  however,  that 
they  were  written  many  years  after  the  event.  At  the 
time  there  was  no  inclination  on  the  part  of  these  deter- 
mined pioneers  of  religious  and  civil  freedom  to  indulge  in 
vain  sentimentalism  or  to  count  up  obstacles  to  success. 
They  had  crossed  the  ocean  for  a  high  and  holy  purpose; 
and  the  opportunity  to  realize  this  purpose  was  now  before 
them,  and  they  went  about  it. 

It  was  well  on  in  the  day  on  which  the  harbor  was  made, 
before  any  of  the  passengers  could  land.  On  account  of 
the  shallowness  of  the  water  the  ship  was 
The  first  obliged  to  come  to  anchor  three-quarters  of  a 
afternoon  m;ie  from  shore.  This  made  landing  incon- 
venient and  involved  besides  a  good  deal  of 
peril  to  health.  For  the  people  "  going  on  shore,  were 
forced  to  wade  a  bow-shot  or  two;  which  caused  many  to 
get  colds  and  coughs."  But  so  near  to  it,  there  was  both  a 
need  and  an  eagerness  to  set  foot  on  solid  earth.  The  ship 
was  out  of  wood,  and  there  was  a  strong  desire  "  to  see 
what  the  land  was,  and  what  inhabitants  they  could  meet 
with."  So  "  fifteen  or  sixteen  men,  well  armed,  were  set 
ashore."  They  saw  no  persons  and  they  came  upon  no 
habitations.    But  they  got  some  idea  of  the  lay  of  the  land, 


THE    PILGRIMS  201 

of  the  nature  of  the  soil,  and  of  the  kind  of  trees  of  which 
the  forests  were  composed.  "  All  wooded  with  oaks,  pines, 
sassafras,  juniper,  birch,  holly,  vines,  ash,  walnut,"  was 
the  report.  At  night  these  fifteen  or  sixteen  returned, 
with  a  boat  loaded  with  "  juniper,  which  smelled  very 
sweet  and  strong."  This  was  the  kind  of  wood  they  "  burnt 
the  most  part  of  the  time  "  they  remained  at  the  cape. 

Sunday  was  holy  time  to  the  Pilgrims,  and  they  made  it 
a  day  of  rest.  Of  this  there  will  be  more  to  say  in  another 
paragraph. 

Ill 

It  was  not  until  Wednesday  that  things  were  in  readiness 
to  enter  upon  the  serious  business  of  finding  a  place  for 

settlement. 
The  first  Monday  was  devoted  to  getting  the  shallop 

explo-  —  «  a  sloop-rigged  craft  of  twelve  or  fifteen 

ration  tons,"  which  had  been  brought  in  the  ship  — 

out  of  the  narrow  quarters  in  which  she  had 
been  stowed,  that  the  carpenters  might  begin  at  once  to  put 
her  in  trim  for  needed  service.  This,  by  the  way,  proved  to 
be  a  much  longer  job  than  was  expected,  "  sixteen  or  seven- 
teen days."  More  of  the  people  went  on  shore  —  the  men 
and  young  folks  "  to  refresh  themselves,"  and  the  women 
"  to  wash."  Fresh  water  with  which  to  do  washing  must 
have  been  a  special  boon  to  these  English  dames,  who,  in 
addition  to  their  own  fine  instincts,  had  had  a  dozen  years 
of  Dutch  teaching  in  the  art  of  cleanliness.  Meantime,  on 
this  and  the  following  days,  swords,  muskets,  and  corslets 
were  put  in  order  for  an  expedition  of  discovery. 

On  Wednesday  the  work  of  exploration  was  taken  up  in 
an  earnest  and  orderly  fashion.  Sixteen  men,  of  whom 
Standish  was  leader,  and  to  whom  Bradford,  Hopkins,  and 
Tilley  "  were  joined  for  council  and  advice  "  were  sent  forth, 
or  rather,  not  so  much  sent  forth,  as  according  to  the  ac- 
count given  in  "  Mourt's  Relation,"  permitted  in  their  im- 
patience to  go  forth,  in  search  of  a  fit  spot  on  which  to 
settle.  Two  days  were  spent  in  diligent  investigation  of  the 
adjacent  country. 


202  THE    PILGRIMS 

The  party,  on  landing,  proceeded  along  the  shore  across 
the  site  of  what  is  now  Provincetown  to  Negro  Head,  and 

thence  past  East  Harbor,  and  on  by  a  pond, 
The  route  named  Fresh  Water  Pond,  until  they  reached 
followed        Pamet   River.      Here   they   doubled   on   their 

tracks,  and  returned  by  nearly  the  same  course 
as  that  on  which  they  had  come.  All  the  movements  of 
these  explorers  were  guarded  and  cautious.  The  first  night 
out  they  built  a  barricade,  and  by  turns  of  three  kept  watch 
till  morning.  The  second  night  they  threw  what  protec- 
tion they  could  about  themselves,  and  arranged  and  posted 
their  sentinels,  but  the  rain  poured  down,  and  they  were 
exceedingly  uncomfortable. 

Some  interesting  discoveries  were  made.     On  the  first 
day  they  saw  a  half-dozen  Indians;    but  they  could  not 

get  near  them.  Later  they  came  upon  Indian 
Discoveries  graVes.  Not  knowing  what  they  were  they 
made  uncovered  them.     On  ascertaining  that  these 

mounds  held  the  bones  of  the  natives  of  the 
forest,  they  reverently  covered  them. 

They  found  a  considerable  quantity  of  maize.     Goodwin 
has  reproduced  the  story  in  this  fresh  fashion :   "  Not  far 

away  was  a  heap  of  sand  which  had  been  re- 
Corn  found  Cently  patted  over  with  hands.  Examination 
and  taken     showed  it   to   contain    a   small   old  basket   of 

shelled  corn,  while  farther  down  was  a  large 
new  basket,  round  and  narrowed  at  the  top,  holding  three 
or  four  bushels  of  maize,  including  thirty-six  whole  ears, 
some  yellow,  some  red,  and  some  mixed  with  blue,  such  as 
one  sees  often  in  the  Cape  Cod  granaries  of  to-day."  Near 
to  the  Indians'  store  of  corn  there  was  also  "  found  a  great 
kettle  which  had  been  some  ship's  kettle,  and  brought  out  of 
Europe."  These  two  discoveries  were  too  much  for  the 
Pilgrims.  Here  was  the  corn  which  they  sorely  needed,  and 
which  they  were  to  need  still  more  sorely  in  the  near  future, 
especially  the  corn,  which  was  still  unshelled  and  was  there- 
fore the  more  suitable  for  seed.  Here,  too,  was  the  kettle 
in  which  to  carry  the  corn.  The  question  was  two-sided. 
On  the  one  side  was  self-preservation;  on  the  other  was 
right.    Was  the  demand  for  self-preservation  so  clear  and 


THE    PILGRIMS  203 

imperative  that  it  could  be  reconciled  to  the  right  to  take 
what  did  not  belong  to  them?  This  is  the  way  they  rea- 
soned :  "  We  were  in  suspense  what  to  do  with  it,  and  the 
kettle;  and,  at  length,  after  much  consultation  we  con- 
cluded to  take  the  kettle  and  as  much  of  the  corn  as  we 
could  carry  away  with  us.  And  when  our  shallop  came, 
if  we  could  find  any  of  the  people,  and  come  to  parley  with 
them,  we  would  give  them  the  kettle  again,  and  satisfy  them 
for  the  corn.  So  we  took  all  the  ears,  and  put  a  good  deal 
of  loose  corn  in  the  kettle,  for  two  men  to  bring  on  a  staff. 
Besides,  they  that  could  put  any  into  their  pockets  filled 
the  same.  The  rest  we  buried  again ;  for  we  were  so  laden 
with  armour  that  we  could  carry  no  more."  The  ethical 
quality  of  this  act  has  been  sharply  debated.  It  has  always 
seemed  to  me  something  to  be  regretted  that  the  kettle 
and  the  corn  were  taken. 

Besides  the  things  already  noted,  four  springs  of  water 
were  discovered ;  fowl  were  found  in  plenty ;  and  deer  were 
seen.  Indeed,  Bradford,  to  the  great  amusement  of  the 
other  members  of  the  party,  was  caught  by  a  simple,  bent- 
sapling  deer-trap,  such  as  the  Indians  knew  well  how  to 
construct.  With  the  future  governor's  f amiliarity  with  the 
Scriptures,  he  must  have  thought  of  the  passage  in  one  of 
the  greatest  poems  ever  written: 

".For  he  is  cast  into  a  net  by  his  own  feet, 

And  he  walketh  upon  the  toils. 
A  gin  shall  take  him  by  the  heel, 

And  a  snare  shall  lay  hold  on  him. 
And  a  noose  is  hid  for  him  in  the  ground, 

And  a  trap  for  him  in  the  way.' 

At  length,  after  much  tramping  and  a  variety  of  inci- 
dents, and  some  rather  exciting  experiences  as  well,  tired 
and  hungry,  with  clothes  soiled  and  torn  from  crossing 
creeks  and  pushing  through  tangled  thickets  and  climbing 
over  fallen  timbers,  the  explorers  returned  to  the  ship. 
They  had  gathered  some  facts,  and  knew  a  little  more  of 
their  environment ;  yet  the  better  part  of  three  days  given 
to  the  search  had  disclosed  no  fit  place  for  a  settlement. 


204  THE    PILGRIMS 


IV 


Before  venturing  on  a  second  exploration,  it  was  thought 
wiser  to  wait  until  the  repairs  on  the  shallop  were  finished ; 

or  so  nearly  finished  as  to  admit  of  the  use  of 
The  second  the  boat.  As  has  been  said  already,  making 
explora-  these  repairs  was  a  much  more  tedious  piece 
tion  0f  WOrk  than  had  been  anticipated.    She  had  to 

be  "  cut  down,"  whatever  that  may  mean,  "  in 
bestowing  her  betwixt  the  decks."  Then  "  she  was  much 
opened  with  the  peoples  lying  in  her."  Naturally  it  took 
considerable  time  to  make  a  craft  in  this  condition  sea- 
worthy. In  consequence  of  this  delay,  it  was  not  until  the 
tenth  day  after  the  first  exploring  party  had  come  in  that 
another  was  ready  to  go  out. 

This  second  exploring  party  was  larger  than  the  first 
one  had  been,  and  it  was  differently  organized.  The  cap- 
tain of  the  ship  was  getting  impatient.  He  wanted  to 
hoist  sail  and  weigh  anchor  for  the  home  voyage.  It  is 
evident,  moreover,  that  he  thought  the  Pilgrims  were  dilly- 
dallying, or  were  too  fastidious  in  their  selection  of  a  place 
for  residence.  Hence  he  offered  to  go  himself  on  the 
hunt  for  a  site.  His  offer  was  accepted,  and  these  shrewd 
colonists  made  him  the  leader  in  the  search.  There  were 
thirty-four  in  all  in  this  second  company  of  explorers  — 
Captain  Jones,  with  nine  of  his  sailors,  and  twenty-four 
picked  men  of  the  Pilgrims. 

On  Monday  morning,  with  bodies  refreshed  by  a  Sab- 
bath of  rest,  and  spirits  quickened  by  a  Sabbath  of  worship, 

this  large  company  started  on  their  important 
racing  a  quest.  It  was  in  sooth  a  holy  grail  —  a  home 
snow-storm    jn  ^he  wilderness,  liberty  to  live  in  the  world 

and  work  out  their  true  destiny  and  move  for- 
ward on  the  line  of  the  will  of  God  unmolested,  which  they 
sought ;  and  the  seekers  were  a  band  of  chaste  knights.  It 
was  late  in  November,  and  the  day  was  one  to  give  more 
than  a  hint  of  what  might  be  expected  in  the  rapidly 
approaching  months  of  winter.  "  It  blowed  and  did  snow 
all  that  day  and  night,  and  froze,  withal."  Six  inches  of 
snow  fell.    The  shallop  could  make  no  headway  against  the 


THE    PILGRIMS  205 

fury  of  the  winds.  She  had  to  seek  shore ;  and  this  she  did 
only  a  little  distance  from  the  ship,  where  she  waited 
through  the  night  for  better  weather.  In  this  instance  the 
long  boat  appears  to  have  been  drafted  into  service  to  aid 
the  party  in  reaching  land.  But  from  both  craft  the 
explorers  had  to  wade  in  order  to  reach  the  shore.  Getting 
to  shore,  they  plodded  on  for  miles ;  and  for  the  remainder 
of  the  day  and  the  night  took  care  of  themselves  as  best 
they  could. 

The  next  day  the  storm  had  abated.    The  party  returned 
to  the  shore,  and  were  met  by  the  shallop  and  carried 

along  to  the  Pamet  River.  This  is  the  point 
Exploration  which  was  reached  by  the  preceding  party  of 
continued       explorers.     It  was  clear  that  opinion,  to  some 

extent  at  least,  was  gravitating  to  this  locality 
as  a  fit  spot  on  which  to  make  a  final  stand.  Setting  out 
from  here  a  wider  circuit  was  traversed,  and  a  more  thor- 
ough inspection  of  the  place  was  made  than  on  the  previous 
visit.  They  went  up  the  longer  of  the  two  branches  of  the 
Pamet,  followed  by  the  shallop,  for  four  or  five  miles. 
Some  of  these  resolute,  home-seeking  Pilgrims  would  have 
stood  it  longer,  and  gone  further,  though  all  of  them 
"  were  tired  with  marching  up  and  down  the  steep  hills, 
and  deep  valleys,  which  lay  half-a-foot  thick  with  snow." 
But  the  order  to  halt  came  from  their  leader.  "  Master 
Jones,  wearied  with  marching,  was  desirous  we  should  take 
up  our  lodging."  The  captain  could  meet  the  challenge  of 
a  howling  tempest  at  sea,  and  stand  undaunted  at  his  post 
on  shipboard  in  midnight  darkness ;  but  threading  his 
way  through  forests,  tramping  up  and  down  hills,  wallow- 
ing in  snow,  and  climbing  over  underbrush,  very  soon 
dampened  his  ardor  for  exploration,  and  made  him  quite 
willing  that  the  people  who  were  intimately  concerned 
with  the  business  should  do  the  searching  for  a  settlement 
site.  In  other  words,  he  was  a  hardy  old  tar,  but  a  poor 
sort  of  landlubber.  "  So,"  as  one  who  was  of  the  party 
puts  it,  "  we  made  there  our  rendezvous  for  that  night 
under  a  few  pine  trees ;  and,  as  it  fell  out,  we  got  three  fat 
geese  and  six  ducks  to  our  supper,  which  we  ate  with  sol- 
diers' stomachs,  for  we  had  eaten  little  all  that  day." 


206  THE    PILGRIMS 

In  the  morning,  after  this  day  of  hard  and  fruitless  toil, 
the  resolutions,  even  of  those  who  had  been  most  ready  the 

night  before  to  go  on  and  prosecute  the  search, 
More  corn  seemed  to  fail  them.  Instead  of  pushing  into 
found  and  places  they  knew  not,  they  took  as  direct  a 
carried  off      course  as  they  could  towards  those  "  heaps  of 

sand  "  where  they  had  found  and  taken  and 
also  left  corn,  when  they  were  there  before  —  left  it 
because  there  was  more  than  they  could  carry  away. 
Besides  the  pits  which  they  had  uncovered  and  found  stored 
with  the  precious  grain  on  the  previous  visit,  they  discov- 
ered others  as  well;  and  in  all,  that  is,  on  both  occasions, 
they  managed  to  get  together  "  about  ten  bushels."  This 
was  an  ample  supply  for  seed.  "  And  sure  it  was  God's 
good  providence,"  as  one  of  their  writers  has  left  on  record, 
"  that  we  found  this  corn ;  for  else  we  know  not  how  we 
should  have  done."  For  the  moment  they  seem  to  have  for- 
gotten the  story  of  Elijah  and  the  ravens.  It  would  have 
been  better  to  buy  before  taking  possession. 

Jones  had  not  discovered  a  site,  but  he  very  soon  discov- 
ered that  he  had  had  enough  of  this  exploring  experience. 

The  weather  was  threatening,  and  he  thought 
Jones  went  ft  prudent  to  go  back  to  the  shelter  of  the  ship, 
back  to  g0  ne  went  "  home,"  and  with  him  were  sent 

the  ship         -tne  «  weakest  people,  and  some  that  were  sick 

and  all  the  corn." 
Eighteen,  or  just  three-quarters  of  the  Pilgrims  of  the 
party,  remained,  "  to  make  further  discovery."  They  spent 

the  night  in  this  vicinity.  The  next  day  they 
Eighteen  made  their  way  five  or  six  miles  into  the  woods, 
remained        They  found  more  mounds,  and  opened  them. 

Curious  things  greeted  their  eyes  in  one  of 
these  graves;  a  piece  of  board  three-quarters  of  a  yard 
long,  "  finely  carved  and  painted,"  and  bowls,  trays,  dishes, 
and  "  such  like  trinkets."  It  was  the  grave  of  one  of  the 
captives  of  a  French  vessel  which  had  been  wrecked  a  few 
years  before  on  Cape  Cod,  and  whose  officers  and  crew  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Indians.  They  also  stumbled 
upon  some  wigwams,  whose  structure  and  rude  furnishings 
they  examined  with  care.    Along  with  other  things  in  these 


THE    PILGRIMS  207 

Indian  dwellings,  they  found  wooden  bowls,  trays,  dishes, 
earthern  pots,  baskets  —  some  curiously  wrought  in  black 
and  white,  with  pretty  patterns,  and  others  made  of  crab- 
shells;  also  vessels  full  of  parched  acorns,  silk-grass, 
tobacco  and  other  seeds,  and  stuff  to  be  woven  into  mats. 
Some  of  these  things  they  took  away  with  them;  but 
through  haste  in  leaving  the  ship  they  had  failed  to  bring 
along  some  of  the  articles  with  which  they  had  hoped  to 
conciliate  their  favor  and  open  up  trade  with  the  Indians. 
This  was  left  for  another  time. 

Thursday  night,  succeeding  the  Monday  on  which  they 
had  started,  found  the  second  exploring  party  back  and 
snugly  housed  in  the  ship.  So  far  as  the 
An  earnest  mam  object  of  these  two  explorations  was  con- 
discussion  cerned,  the  planters  were  no  further  along 
than  when  they  began  their  search  —  no  fur- 
ther along  save  that  they  had  discovered  one  place,  if  no 
more,  where  they  did  not  wish  to  begin  a  settlement.  As 
has  been  said  before,  opinion  to  some  extent  had  been  grav- 
itating toward  the  region  round  about  the  mouth  of  the 
Pamet  River  as  a  suitable  locality  for  pitching  tents  and 
making  their  homes. 

As  was  the  custom  of  the  Pilgrims  in  matters  of  moment, 
the  question  was  threshed  out  in  a  free  interchange  of  opin- 
ion. No  doubt  the  debate  was  a  somewhat  warm  one.  The 
known  impatience  of  the  captain  of  the  ship,  and  his  eager 
desire  to  have  a  decision  speedily  reached,  would  be  likely 
to  give  point  to  the  different  views  as  they  should  be 
expressed  by  one  and  another.  Those  in  the  affirmative 
said:  that  the  mouth  of  the  river  afforded  a  convenient 
harbor  for  boats,  though  too  shallow  for  ships ;  that  lands 
in  the  vicinity  were  good  for  corn ;  that  the  waters  about 
the  cape  were  full  of  fish ;  that  the  locality  beyond  question 
would  prove  to  be  healthy ;  that  the  winter  was  close  upon 
them ;  that  their  supply  of  rations  was  running  short,  and 
that  the  ship  might  slip  away  from  them  on  short  notice 
and  leave  them  to  shift  as  best  they  might.  It  was  a  pretty 
substantial  array  of  arguments,  and  the  inference  that  it 
behooved  them  to  act  promptly  and  fix  on  some  spot  to 
which  they  could  repair  and  begin  the  work  of  home-build- 


208  THE    PILGRIMS 

ing,  does  not  seem  illogical.  Those  in  the  negative  said: 
that  according  to  reports  which  had  reached  them  while 
still  in  the  old  country,  there  was  a  much  better  place  off 
twenty  leagues  to  the  north  of  them ;  that  probably  there 
might  be  a  much  more  eligible  place  near  by  which  a  little 
further  search  would  disclose ;  that  the  water  for  drinking 
in  the  locality  for  which  the  others  were  contending  was 
not  satisfactory,  and  that  in  general  the  mouth  of  the 
Pamet  River  would  not  meet  the  requirements  of  the  col- 
ony. For  these  reasons,  those  who  stood  on  the  negative 
side  in  the  debate  thought  it  wise  to  continue  the  search, 
and  not  decide  on  a  locality  which  did  not  suit  them  until 
they  were  obliged  to  do  so.  This  view  prevailed;  but  it 
was  the  understanding,  or  rather  agreement,  that  the 
search  should  be  confined  to  the  region  of  the  bay,  and  on 
no  account  be  extended  as  far  as  Agawam,  now  Ipswich, 
which  was  the  point  twenty  leagues  away.  This  was 
progress  by  elimination.  So,  after  all,  some  headway  had 
been  made. 


After  these  days  given  to  discussion,  and  when  the  con- 
clusion just  mentioned  had  been  reached,  the  third  explor- 
ing party  went  forth.  There  were  eighteen  in 
The  third  ajL  Ten  of  them  were  Pilgrims.  These  ten 
exploration  «  were  appointed,"  but  they  "were  of  them- 
selves willing  "  to  go.  This  is  the  shining  list : 
Standish,  Carver,  Bradford,  Winslow,  John  Tilley,  Edward 
Tilley,  Howland,  Warren,  Hopkins,  and  Dotey.  There 
were  two  seamen  who  were  in  the  service  of  the  colonists  — 
Allerton  and  English.  Two  of  the  captain's  mates,  Clarke 
and  Coppin,  also  accompanied  the  explorers,  and  added 
greatly  to  the  efficiency  of  the  company.  Besides  these,  the 
master  gunner  and  three  sailors  went  along.  It  is  easy  to 
see  that  this  party  was  organized  on  the  basis  of  something 
to  be  done. 

Rather  late  in  the  day  on  the  Wednesday  next  after  the 
Thursday  on  which  the  second  exploring  party  had  re- 


THE    PILGRIMS  209 

turned  to  the  ship,  the  third  party  set  out.     Repairs  on 
the  shallop  had  been  at  length  completed,  and  the  boat  was 

in  good  trim  for  the  rough  work  she  was  about 
The  party  to  undertake.  This  time  there  was  a  definite 
setting  out    p0mt  in  view,  though  the  knowledge  of  where 

that  point  might  be  was  exceedingly  vague. 
Coppin,  one  of  the  two  mates  just  mentioned,  had  been 
on  this  coast  before,  and  he  told  of  a  great  river  and 
good  harbor  lying  over  against  Cape  Cod,  and  not  much 
more  than  eight  leagues  away.  His  recollections  of  local- 
ities were  hazy,  but  he  was  sure  that  somewhere  in  the  near 
region  there  was  an  inviting  harbor  and  a  good  place  to 
settle.  The  mate  remembered  this  place  from  a  little  inci- 
dent which  was  associated  with  it,  though  the  incident 
stood  out  in  his  mind  with  a  good  deal  more  vividness  than 
the  locality  itself.  When  he  was  there  on  a  previous  occa- 
sion, "  one  of  the  wild  men,  with  whom  they  had  some 
trucking,  stole  a  harping  iron,"  or  harpoon,  "  from  them," 
and  hence  "  they  called  it  Thievish  Harbor."  This  was 
none  other  than  Plymouth  Harbor;  and  it  was  the  point 
beyond  which  the  explorers  were  not  to  go. 

The  weather  was  severe  and  the  winds  were  high.  The 
oarsmen  had  a  hard  struggle  in  getting  past  Long  Point. 
Before  they  could  hoist  sail  and  make  the  smoother  water 
of  a  lee  shore,  Edward  Tilley  and  the  gunner  were  both  very 
ill.  It  was  so  "  cold  "  that  "  the  water  froze  on  the  clothes 
of  the  party,  .  .  .  and  made  them  many  times  like  coats  of 
iron."  Men  not  in  the  best  physical  condition,  or  not  hard- 
ened to  this  kind  of  exposure,  were  little  fitted  for  such 
arduous  undertakings.  But  when  once  under  some  meas- 
ure of  shelter  from  the  fierce  wind  that  was  blowing,  the 
boat  made  tolerable  headway,  and  keeping  as  near  the 
coastline  as  the  shallow  water  would  permit,  steered  by  the 
mouth  of  the  Pamet  River  past  the  entrance  to  Wellfleet 
Bay,  and  on  for  twenty  miles  or  more  to  a  point  off  from 
what  is  now  Eastham.  Here  the  party  landed  —  though  it 
was  by  the  usual  method  of  much  wading,  and  encamped  for 
the  night.  Indians  had  been  seen  on  the  beach,  cutting  up 
a  stranded  grampus,  and  special  precautions  were  taken 
against  surprise  or  attack  under  the  cover  of  darkness  by 

14 


210  THE    PILGRIMS 

the  savages.  In  the  morning  the  explorers  divided  their 
force  —  some  going  by  boat  and  some  on  foot,  for  exam- 
ining the  harbor  facilities  of  the  bay  of  Wellfleet  and  the 
adjacent  country.  Nothing  satisfactory  was  discovered. 
At  the  close  of  the  day,  faint  with  hunger  and  wearied 
with  their  long  tramping,  both  divisions  of  the  party 
returned  to  nearly  the  same  spot  where  they  had  rested 
the  night  before.  The  next  day  had  in  it  some  thrilling 
adventures.  In  the  middle  of  the  night  the  sentries  had 
heard  an  alarming  sound,  and  the  company  was  aroused 
from  sleep.  A  couple  of  shots  were  fired,  and  nothing 
more  was  heard  of  the  invaders.  But  early  in  the  morning, 
while  eating  their  breakfast,  the  Indians  fell  upon  them, 
and  they  realized  that  "  showers  of  arrows  "  might  be 
something  other  than  a  figure  of  speech.  However,  as  this 
story  of  the  attack  and  repulse  falls  into  another  chapter 
—  a  chapter  in  which  the  mutual  relations  and  dealings  of 
the  Pilgrims  and  Indians  are  to  be  fully  narrated,  no  fur- 
ther reference  need  be  made  to  it  in  this  connection. 

After  this  encounter  the  whole  party  boarded  the  shal- 
lop, and  set  out  for  the  destination  which  was  vaguely  in 
the  mind  of  Coppin  —  though  with  the  intention  of 
stopping  short  of  that  harbor  should  they  come  upon  a 
satisfactory  landing-place  on  the  way.  As  the  wind  was 
favorable,  they  decided  to  sail  along  the  coast,  and  ex- 
amine the  country  with  as  much  care  as  they  could.  But 
while  the  wind  was  still  from  the  right  quarter,  after  an 
hour  or  two  it  began  to  snow  and  rain.  In  the  middle  of 
the  afternoon  the  wind  increased,  and  the  sea  was  very 
rough.  With  such  a  storm  upon  them,  and  darkness  rap- 
idly approaching  and  in  utter  ignorance  of  the  coast,  it  is 
no  wonder  that  all  the  canvas  the  boat  could  carry  was 
spread,  and  that  the  craft  was  crowded  to  the  limit.  But 
the  storm  and  the  crowding  brought  a  double  disaster: 
"  the  hinges  of  the  rudder  broke,"  and  two  men  had  to  do 
what  steering  they  might  with  oars,  and  to  add  to  the  diffi- 
culties, "  the  mast  was  split  in  three  pieces."  The  danger 
was  imminent.  The  coast  along  which  the  furious  winds 
were  driving  them  was  one  which  has  no  mercy  for  stranded 
seafarers. 


THE    PILGRIMS  211 

If,  however,  the  wind  was  contrary,  the  tide  was  on  the 
side  of  the  struggling  explorers,  and  bore  them  into  the 
harbor.  But  inside  they  were  in  as  much  peril  as  they  had 
been  outside,  for  the  mate,  who  had  been  piloting  them,  soon 
discovered  that  he  was  mistaken  in  thinking  he  knew  where 
he  was.  Instead,  he  was  as  much  in  the  dark  as  any  of 
them;  and  had  his  directions  been  followed  and  had  the 
boat  been  borne  "  up  northward,"  they  had  surely  been  lost. 
"  But  a  lusty  seaman  which  steered,  bade  those  who  rowed, 
if  they  were  men,  about  with  her,  or  else  they  were  all  cast 
away ;  the  which  they  did  with  speed.  So  he  bid  them  be 
of  good  cheer,  and  row  lustily ;  for  there  was  a  fair  ground 
before  them,  and  he  doubted  not  but  that  they  should  find 
one  place  or  other  where  they  might  ride  in  safety.  And 
though  it  was  very  dark  and  rained  sore,  yet  in  the  end 
they  got  under  the  lee  of  a  small  island,  and  remained  there 
all  night  in  safety."  In  another  account  written  by  the 
same  hand,  but  at  an  earlier  date  and  when  the  sense  of 
help  from  on  high  was  somewhat  fresher  in  his  mind,  this 
is  the  setting  which  is  given  to  the  facts :  "  Yet  still  the 
Lord  kept  us ;  and  we  bare  up  for  an  island  before  us ;  and 
recovering  that  island,  being  compassed  about  with  many 
rocks,  and  dark  night  growing  upon  us,  it  pleased  the 
divine  Providence  that  we  fell  upon  a  place  of  sandy 
ground,  where  our  shallop  did  ride  safe  and  secure  all  that 
night." 

What  a  feeling  of  relief  these  simple  statements  bring 
to  the  reader!  There  are  passages  in  the  account  which 
Bradford  gives  of  this  fearful  struggle  with  storm  and 
darkness  which  almost  take  one's  breath  away,  the  danger 
is  so  threatening  and  utter  destruction  seems  so  near. 
But  under  the  guidance  of  God,  and  through  the  counsel 
of  a  "  lusty  seaman  "  who  kept  a  well-poised  head  on  his 
shoulders,  and  by  aid  of  the  stout  rowing  of  the  men  at  the 
oars,  they  had  escaped  the  perils  of  engulfing  waves  and  a 
rock-bound  and  treacherous  coast,  and  were  at  rest  in  a 
place  of  safety!  They  were  not  relieved  from  fear  of 
Indians,  and  the  hours  of  that  cold  and  anxious  night  must 
have  dragged  heavily ;  but  the  boat  had  reached  the  shore, 
and  they  were  in  no  immediate  danger  of  shipwreck.    With 


212  THE    PILGRIMS 

what  grateful  hearts  they  must  have  welcomed  the  morning ; 
and  how  sweet  the  sunshine  must  have  been  to  eyes  that 
had  grown  weary  peering  into  the  storm  and  trying  to 
penetrate  the  mystery  of  the  enshrouding  darkness.  No 
life  had  been  lost.  The  boat  had  been  damaged,  but  not 
beyond  repair.  Very  soon,  too,  they  discovered  that  they 
were  where  they  could  tarry  for  a  while  unmolested,  and 
refresh  their  tired  bodies  and  their  jaded  spirits.  In  what 
a  temper  of  thanksgiving  and  deep  yet  quiet  joy  the  story 
is  told :  "  Though  this  had  been  a  day  and  night  of  much 
trouble  and  danger  unto  them,  yet  God  gave  them  a  morn- 
ing of  comfort  and  refreshing  —  as  usually  He  does  to 
His  children  —  for  the  next  day  was  a  fair  sunshining 
day,  and  they  found  themselves  to  be  on  an  island,  secure 
from  the  Indians,  where  they  might  dry  their  stuff,  fix 
their  pieces,  and  rest  themselves."  Exactly  this  is  what 
they  did.  Saturday  was  given  to  resting  from  the  fatigue 
and  excitement  of  the  preceding  twenty-four  hours,  thaw- 
ing out  and  drying  their  garments,  repairing  their  shal- 
lop, and  making  up  their  minds  what  to  do  next. 


VI 

There  was  one  other  thing  which  these  Pilgrims  did  on 
that  Saturday.  They  made  preparations  for  the  due  ob- 
servance of  the  Sabbath.  This  single  sentence 
A  signifi-  covers  what  Bradford  has  to  say  about  it  in 
cant  ob-  his  "  History :  "  "  This  being  the  last  day  of 
servance  of  ^ne  week,  they  prepared  there  to  keep  the 
the  Sabbath  Sabbath."  In  "  Mourt's  Relation  "  the  record 
is  even  briefer :  "  On  the  Sabbath  Day  we 
rested."  Here  is  the  announcement  of  preparation  for 
rest  on  the  Lord's  Day,  and  of  the  fact  that  the  rest  was 
taken.  That  is  all.  But  what  a  wealth  of  meaning  this 
announcement  holds,  and  what  a  testimony  it  bears  to  the 
emphasis  which  these  men  placed  upon  the  value  of  the 
Sabbath  to  the  toiling  millions  of  the  world,  and  also  to 
their  sense  of  obligation  to  honor  what  God  honors,  and 
to  be  obedient  to  divine  command.     It  was  an  act  which 


THE    PILGRIMS  213 

mounts  to  the  sublime.  It  had  in  it  the  calm  self-restraint, 
the  lofty  heroism,  and  the  unflinching  loyalty  to  principle, 
which  we  are  wont  to  associate  with  martyrdom.  It  is 
impossible  to  contemplate  it  without  a  feeling  of  awe. 

In  this  remarkable  instance  of  Sabbath-keeping  on  the 
part  of  the  Pilgrims  three  facts,  each  of  which  is  to  their 
glory,  and  all  of  them  combined  to  their  surpassing  glory, 
are  made  conspicuous:  first,  that  they  had  a  fixed  princi- 
ple of  Sabbath  observance;  second,  that  this  fixed  princi- 
ple had  become  hardened  into  a  controlling  habit;  and 
third,  that  under  no  temptation  of  bodily  ease  or  material 
gain  could  they  be  betrayed  into  breaking  their  established 
rule.  To  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice,  and  these  men 
obeyed.  All  through  and  everywhere  they  were  consistent. 
Their  action  there  on  Clark's  Island  in  remembering  the 
Sabbath  Day  to  keep  it  holy  was  a  pattern  cut  from  the 
same  web  as  the  action  on  the  first  Sunday  at  Cape  Cod. 
Both  were  woven  in  the  loom  of  conscience.  Both  showed 
the  profound  respect  they  had  for  the  known  will  of  the 
Almighty. 

We  do  not,  however,  get  the  full  significance  of  this  rest- 
ing on  the  Lord's  Day,  and  devoting  the  hours  to  quiet 
meditation  and  communion  with  God,  until  we  recall  the 
situation,  and  weigh  well  the  circumstances.  On  both  occa- 
sions —  the  first  Sabbath  at  the  cape  and  this  on  the 
island  —  time  was  pressing.  From  the  moment  the  ship 
came  to  anchor  there  was  need  of  the  utmost  despatch  by 
the  colonists  in  determining  on  a  place  for  their  home. 
Each  passing  day  increased  the  urgency.  The  arguments 
which  had  been  advanced  at  the  outset,  and  repeated  over 
and  over  again  for  the  speedy  selection  of  a  site  some- 
where, grew  more  and  more  imperative  with  each  succeed- 
ing sunset.  The  winter  which  had  been  approaching  so 
rapidly  was  now  upon  them  and  increasing  hourly  in 
its  intensity;  rations  were  scant  and  fast  diminishing; 
many  of  their  number  were  ill  and  some  were  dead ;  and  the 
master  of  the  vessel  was  increasingly  impatient  of  delay 
and  in  no  mood  to  tolerate  inaction  and  listen  to  long  par- 
leys. Besides  all  this,  the  land  which  they  had  come  to 
explore  lay  spread  out  before  them  and  within  easy  reach; 


214  THE    PILGRIMS 

they  had  had  the  sunshine  and  warmth  of  Saturday  in 
which  to  recuperate  and  put  everything  in  order  for  the 
further  pursuit  of  the  object  on  which  they  were  abroad; 
there  were  no  crowds  of  onlookers  to  be  injured  by  their 
example ;  and  every  hour  of  the  twenty-four  in  which  they 
lingered  after  they  were  ready  to  move,  meant  more  than 
gold  to  them.  If  there  ever  was  a  body  of  men  on 
earth  who  were  under  constraint  to  lay  religious  scruples 
aside,  and  for  once  to  play  false  even  to  deepest  con- 
victions, it  was  these  Pilgrims  on  that  Sunday  on  Clark's 
Island. 

But  this  is  the  record :  "  On  the  Sabbath  Day  we  rested." 
They  knew  the  reasons  there  were  for  haste  and  felt  the 
full  force  of  them.  They  ached  from  the  sting  of  the  cold 
as  others  did.  They  were  conscious  of  the  impatience  and 
suffering  back  in  the  ship.  They  were  aware  of  the  value 
of  time  to  them,  and  permitted  no  moment  which  they  felt 
at  liberty  to  call  their  own  to  go  to  waste ;  but  appropriat- 
ing sacred  time  to  their  own  worldly  ends  was  quite  another 
thing.  God  had  said :  "  Remember  the  sabbath  day  to 
keep  it  holy.  Six  days  shalt  thou  labor,  and  do  all  thy 
work :  but  the  seventh  day  is  a  sabbath  unto  the  Lord  thy 
God;  in  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work."  That  God  had 
said  it  was  enough.  Nothing  could  induce  them  to  violate 
a  plain  precept  of  the  Word.  In  reverent  obedience  to  the 
divine  law  they  paused  and  rested.  As  Dr.  Cheever  has 
well  said :  "  It  was  a  most  wonderful  consecration  of  all 
New  England  to  God,  this  religious  keeping  of  the  first 
Sabbath  Day  spent  upon  its  shores."  Only,  he  might 
better  have  said,  not  New  England  alone,  but  the  nation ; 
for  what  the  Pilgrims  did,  as  the  event  has  proved,  was  not 
confined  in  its  influence  to  the  little  group  of  states  on  our 
northeastern  border,  but  has  carried  its  blessing  to  the 
entire  republic.  It  is  eminently  fit  that  members  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  in  appreciation  of  an 
act  which  was  to  be  at  once  so  memorable  and  suggestive, 
should  have  cut  into  the  face  of  the  huge  boulder  which 
lies  near  the  middle  of  the  island,  and  under  whose  shelter 
tradition  affirms  that  the  Pilgrims  conducted  their  simple 
worship,   the  simple  but  ever-to-be-cherished   inscription: 


THE    PILGRIMS  215 

"  On  the  Sabboth  Day  wee  rested."  Few  deeds  in  all  his- 
tory are  more  worthy  of  commemoration  by  monument. 
To  many  it  may  seem  to  have  been  an  exhibition  of  over- 
scrupulousness  to  keep  the  Sabbath  as  these  men  did  on 
that  day  on  Clark's  Island.  Perhaps  it  was.  But  who  is 
to  gainsay  the  suggestion  that  God  kept  the  Pilgrims  be- 
cause the  Pilgrims  kept  God's  laws?  One  day  in  seven, 
in  which  the  tools  of  industry  are  dropped  and  the  noise 
of  mills  is  hushed  and  traffic  ceases,  and  thoughts  are  given 
to  the  matters  of  God,  and  the  soul  and  the  hungers  of  the 
higher  life  are  fed,  seems  to  be  wrought  into  the  consti- 
tution of  things  as  well  as  to  lie  at  the  heart  of  the  economy 
of  right  living  which  has  been  outlined  for  us  in  the  revela- 
tions which  we  have  of  the  divine  will.  It  may  be  that 
these  men,  after  all,  were  under  the  guidance  of  a  Spirit 
which  makes  no  mistakes,  and  that  in  virtue  of  what  some 
would  call  their  hard-and-fast  interpretation  of  the  com- 
mandment they  reached  their  end  sooner  than  they  would 
have  done  by  an  easy-going  interpretation.  The  Sabbath 
was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath.  Yes. 
But  what  was  man  made  for?  It  is  barely  possible  that 
when  we  have  got  a  right  idea  of  the  true  end  and  aim  of 
man,  we  shall  see  that  a  somewhat  stricter  observance  of 
the  Sabbath  than  is  at  all  popular  of  late,  will  better  accord 
with  the  real  interests  of  both  individuals  and  communi- 
ties. These  men  kept  the  Sabbath  and  God  kept  them.  It 
will  be  wiser  for  us  to  think  there  may  be  some  very  inti- 
mate connection  between  the  two  facts.  In  the  matter  of 
Sabbath-keeping,  latter-day  tendencies,  it  must  be  confessed, 
are  not  encouraging.  There  is  need  of  the  tonic  of  Pilgrim 
loyalty  to  the  letter  of  the  law.  The  spirit  would  be  better 
observed  if  a  little  more  regard  were  had  to  the  letter.  As 
the  Mayflower  Compact  held  in  it  an  import  and  value 
touching  the  equal  rights  of  men  and  the  common  duties 
of  citizens  quite  beyond,  it  may  be,  any  conception  which 
the  signers  of  that  instrument  entertained,  so  it  may  have 
been  in  the  purpose  of  God  that  the  striking  observance 
of  Sunday  on  Clark's  Island  by  those  Pilgrim  explorers 
should  be  a  great  and  unique  object-lesson,  not  alone  for 
the  few  people  who  could  be  crowded  within  the  walls  of  a 


i 


216  THE    PILGRIMS 

small  ship,  but  for  their  descendents  and  the  world  in  all 
after  times.  Say  what  we  will,  better  the  strictness  of  the 
fathers,  than  the  laxness  of  the  children. 


VII 

Having  observed  the  Sabbath  in  the  way  just  indicated, 
on  Monday  morning,  bright  and  early,  the  Pilgrims  started 

out,  though  we  may  be  very  certain  it  was  not 
Setting  foot  until,  as  was  habitual  with  them,  they  had  had 
on  the  fa-  their  morning  devotions,  in  the  search  for  a 
mous  rock      s{ie  for  their  habitation.     In  the  discussion  to 

which  reference  has  been  made  in  a  preceding 
paragraph  concerning  the  essentials  of  a  desirable  location 
for  settlement,  it  developed  that  these  several  conditions 
were  thought  to  be  necessary:  a  good  harbor;  enough 
cleared  land  to  insure  a  crop  of  maize  the  first  year;  a 
plenty  of  pure  water;  general  healthfulness ;  the  promise 
of  sea  food;  and  a  place  easy  to  be  defended  and  main- 
tained in  security.  The  question  was  soon  to  be  decided 
whether  the  locality  in  which  they  then  were,  met  all  or 
the  most  of  these  requirements.  This  is  Bradford's  account 
of  what  was  discovered :  "  On  Monday  they  sounded  the 
harbor,  and  found  it  fit  for  shipping;  and  marched  into 
the  land  and  found  divers  cornfields,  and  little  running 
broods  —  a  place,  as  they  supposed,  fit  for  situation ;  at 
least  it  was  the  best  they  could  find,  and  the  season  and 
their  present  necessity  made  them  glad  to  accept  it." 
Goodwin,  who  knew  every  foot  of  ground  in  that  region, 
says :  "  The  harbor,  if  not  excellent,  was  truly  '  the  best 
they  could  find '  between  Cape  Cod  Harbor  and  Boston 
Bay ;  there  were  the  broad  cornfields  left  by  the  Patuxets 
only  three  years  before  —  the  only  cleared  land  known  to 
have  been  thereabouts ;  while  a  deliciously  pure  water  filter- 
ing from  the  sandy  background  danced  across  the  fields 
to  the  sea,  forming  the  only  group  of  brooks  around 
Plymouth  Bay;  the  site  was  protected  on  the  east  by  the 
harbor,  on  the  south  by  a  great  brook  in  a  ravine,  on  the 
west  by  an  abrupt  hill  of  a  hundred  and  sixty-five  feet 


THE    PILGRIMS  217 

elevation,  and  on  the  remaining  side  was  an  open  field  ready 
for  a  palisade  which  would  be  covered  by  cannon  on  the 
hill." 

Recalling  the  passage  from  Bradford,  it  is  to  be  noticed 
that  no  mention  is  made  of  any  rock  on  which  they  landed, 
or  crossed  in  making  their  landing.  But  the  evidence  both 
from  documents  now  in  existence  and  from  well-authenti- 
cated tradition  make  it  clear  that  the  exploring  party  in 
going  ashore,  on  December  21,  1620,  set  foot  "  upon 
a  large  rock,"  and  that  the  rock  on  which  they  stepped 
was  the  Plymouth  Rock  of  undying  fame.  It  is  the  land- 
ing on  this  rock  which  is  now  celebrated  as  Forefathers' 
Day. 

The  rock  has  had  a  curious  history.  As  the  town  grew 
and  shipping  increased,  wharves  began  to  encroach  on  the 
site  of  the  rock,  and  there  was  danger  of  its  being  cov- 
ered over.  To  prevent  this  an  attempt  was  made  to  raise 
the  rock.  This  was  in  1775,  and  the  effort  resulted  in 
splitting  the  boulder.  The  upper  section  was  taken  to  the 
town  square,  and,  as  this  occurred  just  as  the  Revolution 
was  breaking  out,  it  was  deposited  at  the  foot  of  a  liberty 
pole,  from  which  floated  a  flag  that  expressed  the  purpose 
of  the  colonies  to  have  liberty  or  death.  After  remaining 
in  that  place  for  about  sixty  years,  it  was  taken  on  one 
Fourth  of  July  and  carried  in  procession,  and  set  down  in 
front  of  Pilgrim  Hall.  Forty-six  years  later  this  detached 
piece  of  the  rock  was  taken  back  to  its  rightful  place  and 
reunited  with  the  larger  piece,  and  the  whole  rock  is  now 
covered  by  a  canopy,  which  rests  on  four  columns,  and  is 
constructed  of  granite.  This  famous  rock  now  presents, 
as  it  is  supposed,  very  much  the  appearance  it  had  when 
Standish  and  his  associates  walked  across  it  on  that  ever- 
memorable  morning  when  they  rowed  over  from  Clark's 
Island  to  the  mainland.  But  though  it  is  not  mentioned  in 
their  writings,  and  in  stepping  upon  it  they  were  utterly 
unconscious  of  anything  save  getting  to  shore  the  best 
way  they  could,  yet  that  rock  has  been  made  the  symbol 
of  all  that  the  Pilgrim  movement  stood  for  in  their  own 
and  in  after  ages. 

Only  a  single  day  was  spent  by  the  party  in  exploring 


218  THE    PILGRIMS 

in  the  region.  They  saw  enough  to  convince  them  that 
somewhere  in  that  immediate  vicinity  a  proper  location  for 
their  settlement  could  be  found.  The  long  search  was 
ended.     It  simply  remained  to  enter  and  occupy. 


VIII 

On  Tuesday  the  explorers  returned  to  the  ship.     They 
had  been  absent  since  the  preceding  Wednesday.     But  it 

was  cheering  news  which  they  brought.  They 
From  Cape  na(j  suffered  great  hardships,  and  their  lives 
Cod  to  na(j  been  m  peril,  but  unlike  the  two  parties 

Plymouth       wno  nacj  g0ne  before  them,  they  had  found  a 

site  which  they  could  recommend  for  settlement. 
It  was  Plymouth.  They  did  not  have  to  name  the  place. 
That  had  been  done  for  them.  Fifteen  years  before,  Cham- 
plain  had  sailed  into  the  harbor  and  christened  the  local- 
ity. His  christening  was  a  passing  incident.  Later,  only 
a  half-dozen  years  before  the  coming  of  the  Mayflower, 
Capt.  John  Smith  explored  the  whole  coast  from  eastern 
Maine  to  Cape  Cod.  He  entered  this  same  harbor.  One 
of  the  results  of  his  explorations  was  a  map,  drawn  by  him 
and  said  to  be  remarkably  accurate,  on  which,  set  over 
against  the  spot  where  the  exiles  landed,  was  the  name 
"  Plimouth."  Grateful  for  the  kindness  which  they  re- 
ceived at  the  last  port  from  which  they  sailed,  the  Pilgrims, 
we  may  be  sure,  were  only  too  glad  to  adopt  the  name  they 
found  already  given  to  the  place,  and  call  their  settlement 
New  Plymouth. 

But  though  the  party  brought  back  good  news,  they 
were  greeted  with  ill  tidings.     For  during  their  absence 

death  had  entered  their  little  circle  and  claimed 
Sorrow  upon  two  victims.  Two  days  before  the  explorers 
sorrow  left,   Edward   Thompson   had   died.      On   the 

morning  of  the  day  of  their  departure,  Jasper 
Moore  had  followed  Thompson  to  his  long  home.  Both 
were  humble  members  of  the  colony.  The  next  day  after 
the  party  had  left,  Dorothy  Bradford,  the  wife  of  the 
future  governor,  fell  overboard  and  was  drowned.     The 


THE    PILGRIMS  219 

following  day,  James  Chilton  passed  away.  Here  were 
four  deaths  in  quick  succession,  and  two  of  them  occurred 
during  the  absence  of  the  party  which  had  just  come  back 
from  the  discovery  of  Plymouth.  It  was  enough  to  make 
bronzed  faces  turn  pale  and  stout  hearts  quiver  with  pain. 
It  was  a  bitter  foretaste  of  still  bitterer  experiences  to 
follow.  But  there  was  no  drawing  back  from  their  self- 
appointed  and  divinely  directed  task. 

The  master  of  the  ship  had  declared  that  he  would  not 
leave  the  anchorage  in  which  they  then  were  until  a  safe 
harbor    had    been    discovered.       The    report 
Weighing      brought   back   by    the   last    exploring    party 
anchor  satisfied  him  and  met  the  views  of  the  colo- 

nists. Hence  as  soon  as  all  were  ready,  which 
was  not  until  Friday,  the  anchor  was  lifted  and  sails  set 
for  the  passage  to  Plymouth.  Winds  were  adverse  and 
the  harbor  was  not  made  until  the  next  day.  But  on 
Saturday,  December  26,  1620,  the  Mayflower  came  to  her 
moorings  in  Plymouth  Harbor,  and  the  Pilgrims,  now  at 
the  end  of  their  long  journey,  were  face  to  face  with  a 
little  section  of  the  world  which  they  were  to  sanctify  by 
their  presence  and  immortalize  in  history. 


XI 

THE    FIRST  WINTER    AT    PLYMOUTH 


As  one  small  candle  may  light  a  thousand,  so  the  light  here  kindled  hath 
shone  to  many  — yea  in  some  sort  to  our  whole  nation. 

William  Bradford. 

Next  to  the  fugitives  whom  Moses  led  out  of  Egypt,  the  little  shipload  of 
outcasts  who  landed  at  Plymouth  are  destined  to  influence  the  future  of  the 
world. —  James  Russell  Lowell. 

Of  all  migrations  of  peoples  the  settlement  of  New  England  is  pre- 
eminently the  one  in  which  the  almighty  dollar  played  the  smallest  part, 
however  important  it  may  since  have  become  as  a  motive  power.  It  was 
left  for  religious  enthusiasm  to  achieve  what  commercial  enterprise  had 
failed  to  accomplish. —  John  Fiske. 

I  regard  it  as  a  great  thing  for  a  nation  to  be  able,  as  it  passes  through 
one  sign  after  another  of  its  zodiac  pathway,  in  prosperity,  in  adversity,  and 
at  all  times  —  to  be  able  to  look  to  an  authentic  race  of  founders,  and  a 
historical  principle  of  institution  —  the  extent  and  permanence  of  whose 
influence  are  of  a  kind  and  power  —  to  kindle  and  feed  the  moral  imagi- 
nation, move  the  capacious  heart,  and  justify  the  intelligent  wonder  of  the 
world. —  Rufus  Choate. 

Wild  was  the  day,  the  wintry  sea 

Moaned  sadly  on  New  England  strand, 
When  first  the  thoughtful  and  the  free, 

Our  fathers,  trod  the  desert  land. 

They  little  thought  how  pure  a  light, 

With  years  should  gather  round  that  day: 

How  love  should  keep  their  memories  bright; 
How  wide  a  realm  their  sons  should  sway. 

William  Ctjllen  Bryant. 

The  sadness  and  pathos  which  some  might  read  into  the  narrative  are 
to  me  lost  in  victory.  The  triumph  of  a  noble  cause  even  at  a  great  price  is 
theme  for  rejoicing,  not  for  sorrow,  and  the  story  of  the  Pilgrims  is  one  of 
triumphant  achievement.  —  Roger  Wolcott. 


XI 

THE    FIRST   WINTER   AT    PLYMOUTH 

IN  outward  incident  and  impressiveness  the  landing 
of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth  Rock  differed  in  no 
essential  particular  from  many  another  attempt  at 
colonization  which  history  records.  Yet  this  act  was 
epoch-making.  It  was  a  turning-point  in  the  progress  of 
mankind.  It  gave  new  impulse  and  direction  and  hope  to 
the  struggling  masses  of  humanity,  and  made  it  evident  that 
men  who  are  determined  to  be  free  can  somehow  find  a  way 
to  accomplish  their  object.  From  the  hour  when  that  land- 
ing became  a  demonstrated  success,  the  hatefulness  of  the 
tyranny  which  persecutes  for  fidelity  to  intelligent  and 
honest  convictions,  has  seemed  more  hateful ;  and  the  hero- 
ism which  is  willing  to  make  all  sacrifices  and  endure  all 
hardships  for  the  sake  of  conscience  has  seemed  more 
heroic.  Ever  since  that  event,  now  lacking  less  than  a 
score  of  years  of  being  three  centuries  ago,  when  the 
beacon  lights  of  faith  and  liberty  were  kindled  anew  on 
the  bleak  shores  of  New  England,  the  wisdom  of  stand- 
ing by  principle  and  taking  wide  views  of  duty,  and 
then  trusting  to  the  future  for  vindication,  has  had  a 
warmer  commendation  in  the  sober  judgment  of  thought- 
ful minds. 


When  the  Mayflower  reached  the  harbor  of  Plymouth 
nothing  was  settled  except  that  somewhere  in  that  locality 
the  Pilgrims  were  to  build  their  homes  and  lay  the  founda- 


224  THE    PILGRIMS 

tion  of  their  state.  They  were  through  with  their  wide 
explorations ;  but  it  was  still  to  be  determined  whether 
their  settlement  should  be  in  the  vicinity  of 
Choosing  a  tne  rock  across  which  the  previous  landing 
site  for  na(j  Deen  ma(Je,  or  elsewhere.     Hence  further 

building         examination  of  the  region  was  necessary. 

The  ship  reached  the  harbor,  it  will  be  re- 
called, on  Saturday.  On  the  Sabbath  they  rested.  The 
same  reasons  for  haste  as  on  the  preceding  Sabbath  still 
existed,  and  the  same  eager  desire  to  see  what  was  before 
them  and  be  at  their  work ;  but  —  they  rested. 

On  Monday  the  master  of  the  ship,  aided  by  three  or 
four  sailors,  took  a  party  —  presumably  all  of  the  men  who 
were  able  to  go  —  ashore.  This  party  went  westward,  fol- 
lowing along  the  coast  but  keeping  within  the  woods,  for 
seven  or  eight  miles.  They  found  "  four  or  five  small  run- 
ning brooks  of  very  sweet  fresh  water,"  but  no  navigable 
river.  The  soil  they  judged  to  be  rich.  In  the  forests 
there  was  a  great  variety  of  trees  and  many  kinds  of  herbs. 
Clay  of  an  excellent  quality  seemed  to  be  in  abundance; 
and  what  they  never  failed  to  magnify  —  "  the  best  water 
that  ever  we  drank."  It  is  evident  that  these  searchers,  on 
this  as  on  former  occasions,  had  a  quick  eye  for  every- 
thing about  them.  The  days  were  short ;  but  night  found 
the  party  weary,  and  once  more  aboard  the  boat. 

The  next  day  the  same  region  was  explored  still  more 
thoroughly.  The  party,  some  by  land  and  some  in  the 
shallop,  pushed  their  way  as  far  as  a  stream,  which,  in 
honor  of  the  master  of  the  ship,  they  named  Jones  River. 
They  went  up  this  stream  a  number  of  miles.  It  was  so 
shallow,  however,  that  they  saw  it  would  be  of  no  use  to 
them  except  at  high  tide.  The  place  was  what  is  now 
Kingston;  and  it  had  many  features  to  commend  it  to 
the  colonists.  But  it  was  at  considerable  distance  from 
good  fishing-ground;  was  deeply  wooded,  and  thus  would 
expose  them  to  attacks  by  the  Indians ;  and  clearing  up 
the  land  and  getting  it  ready  for  planting  was  a  task  quite 
beyond  their  strength  at  that  time. 

On  the  same  day  it  appears  that  the  thoughts  of  some  of 
the  party  turned  to  Clark's  Island;   and  a  fresh  examina- 


THE    PILGRIMS  225 

tion  was  made  of  its  advantages.  The  attractions  of  the 
island  were  that  it  was  "  a  place  defensible  and  of  great 
security."  It  was  at  a  safe  distance  from  the  mainland. 
It  was  well  wooded.  It  was  too  well  wooded,  in  fact ;  for 
as  in  the  locality  of  Kingston  it  would  be  difficult  to  clear 
enough  for  a  crop  of  corn.  Another  objection  was  that 
there  was  no  fresh  water,  and  they  feared  what  might  hap- 
pen to  them  in  the  heat  of  summer. 

Night  found  them  all  in  the  ship  again.  Two  days 
given  to  this  kind  of  exploration  and  comparison  of 
localities  seemed  to  them  enough ;  and  there  was  a  general 
understanding  that  on  the  next  day  they  would  conclude 
the  business  by  fixing  definitely  and  finally  on  some  point 
of  settlement. 

Wednesday  dawned  upon  them.  It  was  to  be  a  moment- 
ous day.  As  was  their  custom,  these  Pilgrims  "  called  on 
God  for  direction."  Then  they  went  ashore.  Three  places 
were  in  their  minds  —  the  island,  though  this  place  seems 
to  have  been  practically  ruled  out  before  leaving  the  ship, 
the  region  of  Kingston,  and  the  vicinity  of  the  rock. 
Which  should  it  be?  The  question  was  to  be  submitted  to 
vote.  The  majority  were  to  rule.  The  conclusion  was 
reached  "  by  most  voices  to  set  on  the  mainland,  on  the 
first  place,  on  a  high  ground,  where  there  was  a  great  deal 
of  land  cleared,"  which  had  already  been  "  planted  with 
corn  three  or  four  years  "  before,  and  through  which 
there  ran  "  a  very  sweet  brook,"  and  in  which  there  were 
"  many  delicate  springs  of  as  good  water  as  can  be 
drunk."  This  place  also  afforded  "  a  harbor  "  for  their 
"  shallops  and  boats,"  while  the  brook  promised  them 
"  much  good  fish  in  their  season."  The  urgent  question 
—  the  question  which  had  been  in  the  minds  of  some  of  the 
leaders  for  years,  and  which  for  the  last  few  weeks  had 
been  almost  a  life-and-death  question  with  all  of  them,  was 
fully  decided.  The  spot  where  the  Pilgrims  were  to  fix 
their  habitation  and  work  out  their  destiny  was  forever 
settled.  Years  later,  when  the  affairs  of  the  colony  were 
thought  to  be  in  a  crisis,  the  question  of  removing  or 
remaining  where  they  were  was  to  be  a  subject  of  debate; 
but  there  was  to  be  no  change.    The  decision  given  by  the 

15 


226  THE    PILGRIMS 

"  most  voices  "  on  that  Wednesday  morning  had  in  it  the 
force  of  a  divine  decree  and  was  final. 

The  reasons  why  the  island  and  the  region  of  Kingston 
were  ruled  out  have  already  been  given.  The  reasons,  too, 
why  the  locality  close  to  the  rock  carried  the  day  have 
been  incidentally  put  in  evidence.  The  "  high  ground  " 
the  "  delicious  springs,"  the  "  sweet  brooks,"  the  "  deal  of 
land  cleared,"  the  good  "  harbor,"  the  "  much  fish  "  to  be 
taken  in  their  season,  the  command  their  "  ordnance " 
would  have  "  all  round  about,"  the  outlook  the  place 
afforded  "  into  the  Bay,"  and  the  ample  elbow-room,  land- 
ward and  seaward,  which  they  would  have  if  they  pitched 
their  tents  and  drove  down  their  stakes  on  that  spot,  were 
all  factors  in  the  determination  of  their  choice.  That  they 
chose  wisely  has  been  the  verdict  of  after-times.  Had  the 
coast  been  thoroughly  explored,  better  harbors  and  better 
soil  might  have  been  discovered;  but  for  the  Pilgrims, 
when  all  things  are  considered  —  their  weakness,  the  fatal- 
ity which  had  overtaken  the  Indians  in  their  immediate 
vicinity,  the  lands  all  ready  for  planting,  and  the  little 
there  was  in  their  situation  and  surroundings  to  excite 
cupidity,  there  was  no  better  place  in  all  the  world  than 
Plymouth. 

II 

Wednesday,  December  30,  the  day  on  which  the  deci- 
sion was  reached  to  settle  at  Plymouth,  operations  were 

commenced.  About  twenty  of  the  men  who 
Beginning  ^aj  come  over  in  the  morning  to  vote  on  the 
to  build         question  of  a  site,  determined  to  go  to  work 

at  once  and  remain  on  the  ground  over  night. 
Rude  preparations  were  made,  or  rather  attempted,  for 
the  security  and  comfort  of  the  party ;  but  what  could 
be  done  in  so  short  a  time  proved  wholly  inadequate  to 
their  needs.  In  the  morning,  all  who  were  well  enough 
to  leave  the  ship  and  join  in  the  labor  of  building  were  to 
go  ashore  and  lend  a  hand.  A  violent  storm  arose,  and 
those  who  were  in  the  boat  could  not  get  to  land,  and  those 
who  were  on  the  land  could  not  reach  the  boat.    It  was  a 


THE    PILGRIMS  227 

trying  time.  The  men  in  the  ship  were  impatient  to  be 
doing  something,  and  those  on  the  land  were  wet  and  cold 
and  hungry,  for  their  shelter  had  been  very  poor,  and 
they  were  without  food.  Toward  noon,  however,  "  the 
shallop  went  off  with  much  ado."  She  carried  "  provis- 
ions "  to  the  well-nigh  famished  and  frozen  men  who  had 
volunteered  to  stay  on  shore.  Something  to  eat  must  have 
been  very  welcome.  But  this  was  not  the  end  of  the  em- 
barrassments. The  wind  was  so  strong  that  the  shallop 
could  not  return  to  the  ship.  All  the  next  day  the  storm 
continued  in  such  fury  that  there  could  be  no  intercourse 
between  those  on  board  the  vessel  and  those  on  land.  It 
was  not  until  Saturday  that  weather  conditions  moderated 
sufficiently  to  permit  going  back  and  forth  between  the 
ship  and  the  shore.  Then  as  many  as  could  went  ashore, 
and  began  to  cut  down  and  carry  timber  and  gather  ma- 
terials for  building. 

How  simple  the  narrative  of  the  doings  of  these  men! 
How  matter-of-fact  it  all  seems !  It  was  just  the  drudgery 
of  the  common  laborer  —  hard,  wearisome  toil  day  in  and 
day  out.  It  was  worse,  for  there  were  no  beasts  of  burden 
to  do  their  hauling.  Altogether  unpoetic  were  their  tasks 
—  save  that  there  is  always  a  strain  of  poetry  in  the 
humblest  duty  faithfully  done.  For  the  most  part  they 
were  wholly  unconscious,  too,  of  what  they  were  actually 
doing.  Using  their  short  days,  and  catching  what  sun- 
shine there  was  between  those  fierce  winter  storms,  they 
thought  they  were  just  building  themselves  a  few  houses 
in  which  to  dwell.  They  were  doing  this,  but  how  much 
more!  In  the  first  tree  they  felled,  they  were  opening  out 
a  resplendent  highway  for  civil  as  well  as  religious  liberty. 
The  first  shovelful  of  earth  they  lifted  was  so  much  prep- 
aration for  laying  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  of  a 
vast  and  beneficent  republic.  They  were  not  thinking  of 
wealth,  but  of  a  shelter  from  the  storm,  and  a  hearthstone 
around  which  they  might  gather,  and  a  quiet  retreat,  far 
from  the  strife  of  tongues,  where  they  might  commune  with 
each  other  and  worship  God  unmolested.  They  were  think- 
ing just  as  little  of  wide  political  influence  and  power; 
though  they  were  not  without  hope  at  times  that  something 


228  THE    PILGRIMS 

helpful  to  the  Kingdom  might  grow  out  of  their  move- 
ment and  example.  But  God,  who  was  behind  them  and 
around  them  and  in  them,  was  thinking  of  many  things. 
Beyond  the  horizon  which  shut  in  their  narrow  human 
vision  He  saw  a  mighty  empire  emerging  —  an  empire 
with  laws  and  institutions  and  customs  and  life  informed 
and  dominated  by  such  a  spirit  of  equal  rights  and  justice 
as  was  never  before  seen  in  any  nation  on  earth.  They 
"  felled  and  carried  timber  "  to  provide  themselves  "  stuff 
for  building ;  "  but  they  were  building  more  stately  man- 
sions than  they  knew. 

HI 

Before  they  began  erecting  their  houses,  the  Pilgrims 
had  a  general  idea  of  the  way  in  which  their  little  town 

was  to  be  laid  out,  and  of  the  order  in  which 
Plan  of  their  successive  buildings  were  to  be  put  up. 

the  town        The    immediate    exigency    of    the    settlement 

seemed  to  call  for  nineteen,  or  as  some  say, 
eighteen  houses ;  for  by  assigning  the  single  men  to  the 
circles  which  could  most  conveniently  receive  them,  the 
whole  colony  could  be  accommodated  by  this  number  of 
families.  A  street  running  back  from  the  water  to  the  hill 
was  marked  out,  and  the  houses  were  to  stand  on  either  side 
of  the  street.  Each  family  was  to  build  its  own  house, 
and  the  location  of  each  was  to  be  determined  by  lot.  The 
street  is  still  there,  and  it  is  now  known  as  Leyden  Street. 

In  addition  to  these  residences  for  the  several  families, 
the  plan  on  which  the  Pilgrims  were  proceeding  required 
the  construction  of  what  they  called  a  "  common-house." 
It  seemed  advisable  to  put  this  up  at  once,  in  order  that 
there  might  be  a  place  for  shelter  and  storage  of  goods. 
What  with  inclement  weather  and  sickness  and  accidents 
by  fire,  though  it  had  been  in  partial  use  before  the  end  of 
that  time,  it  took  a  month  to  get  this  small  rough  struc- 
ture of  twenty  by  twenty  ready  for  service.  To  complete 
their  outfit  of  buildings,  there  was  to  be  a  platform  on  the 
hill  —  first  a  platform  and  then  a  fort  —  on  which  their 
guns  could  be  mounted.    Glimpses  which  were  caught  now 


THE    PILGRIMS  229 

and  then  of  Indians  prowling  about,  and  evidences  which 
they  had  of  their  nearness  to  them  on  occasions  when  they 
were  not  seen,  naturally  hurried  work  on  this  military 
defense.  In  a  little  more  than  two  months  two  large 
cannon,  one  weighing  fifteen  hundred  pounds  and  the  other 
twelve  hundred,  and  still  "  another  piece  that  lay  on  shore  " 
whose  weight  is  not  given,  with  two  smaller  pieces  weighing 
each  about  two  hundred  pounds,  were  placed  in  position, 
and  made  ready  to  do  execution  in  the  hour  of  need. 

IV 

Only  seven  of  the  nineteen  houses  were  built,  and  the  first 
one  of  them  to  be  completed  was  turned  into  a  temporary 

hospital.  For,  in  spite  of  all  they  could  do, 
Sickness  tides  of  disaster  and  desolation  kept  rolling 
and  death      {n  on  these  devoted  Pilgrims.     The  refrain  of 

their  story  from  the  closing  days  of  December 
till  the  closing  days  of  March,  when  the  sun  began  to 
mount  higher  in  the  sky,  and  the  buds  to  swell,  and  the  air 
to  have  some  softness  in  its  caress,  was  death.  Brave, 
sweetly  patient,  faithful,  at  times  not  quite  assured  of 
what  the  outcome  of  it  all  was  to  be,  but  confident  in  God, 
it  was  yet  but  a  dirge-like  music  which  rolled  through  the 
souls  of  the  men  and  women  of  this  little  stricken  com- 
munity. December  saw  six  of  them  fold  their  hands  and 
go  hence ;  January  eight ;  February  seventeen ;  and  March 
thirteen.  Governor  Carver  followed  in  April,  and  Mrs. 
Carver  in  June.  Before  their  first  year  was  ended,  so 
many  of  those  who  had  set  out  in  the  Mayflower  for  the 
voyage  to  America  had  gone  to  their  final  account  that 
the  obituary  list  was  carried  up  to  fifty-one  —  just  one- 
half  of  the  hundred  and  two.  Arber,  in  his  classification, 
adds  the  two  children,  Oceanus  Hopkins  and  Peregrine 
White,  who  were  born  before  the  Mayflower  reached  Ply- 
mouth, to  the  passenger  list  with  which  the  vessel  left 
England,  and  in  this  way  increases  the  number  to  one 
hundred  and  four.  But  he  puts  the  record  of  deaths  at 
fifty-three,  which  leaves  the  survivors  at  fifty-one,  as  just 
given. 


230  THE    PILGRIMS 


How  explain  a  death-roll  so  startling?    What  were  the 
causes  of  this  wide-sweeping  and  fatal  malady?     The  an- 
swer lies   on  the  surface,   and  yet  no  single 
Causes  of       statement  covers   the   case, 
sickness  First  0f  an  {t  must  be  remembered  that  the 

colonists  were  quite  unused  to  the  kind  of  life 
they  had  to  meet  on  shipboard,  and  to  the  exposures  and 
hardships  which  they  had  to  encounter  on  landing  on  an 
uninhabited  shore.  For  twelve  years  the  work  of  the  most 
of  them  had  been  indoors ;  and  they  had  been  wholesomely 
fed  and  well  sheltered  from  storm  and  heat  and  cold.  To 
be  thrust  from  comfortable  homes  and  quiet  employment 
in  Holland  into  the  unexplored  wilds  of  North  America 
in  the  winter  season  was  a  change  ominous  of  disaster. 
Then  the  long  voyage,  the  narrow  accommodations  which 
their  small  ship  must  have  offered  to  so  large  a  company, 
and  their  limited  diet,  predisposed  them  to  serious  dis- 
tempers and  ailments.  On  reaching  Cape  Cod,  a  large 
majority  of  the  company  must  have  been  in  condition  to 
invite  disease.  Nor  must  we  overlook  in  our  search  for  the 
causes  of  so  much  fatal  sickness  the  wading  from  boat  to 
shore  and  back  again,  which  was  necessary  through  all  of 
the  first  month  after  landing,  the  hard  tramping,  often 
when  faint  from  hunger,  through  rain  and  sleet  and  snow ; 
the  camping-out  and  sleeping  in  wet  clothes  on  the  cold, 
damp  earth,  with  little  or  no  protection  against  wind  and 
storm,  and  the  anxiety  which  would  inevitably  grow  out 
of  the  situation  in  which  all  were  placed.  If  to  this  list 
there  be  added  the  lack  of  "  houses  and  other  comforts," 
such  as  suitable  remedies  and  convenient  places  for  min- 
istering to  the  sick,  and  delicacies  to  nourish  the  feeble 
and  tempt  the  appetites  of  the  convalescent,  the  explana- 
tion of  the  illness  which  befell  the  Pilgrims  during  the  first 
winter  of  their  life  at  Plymouth  becomes  so  impressive  that 
one  wonders  how  any  of  them  survived. 

Here  is  a  passage  copied  from  a  paragraph  in  "  Mourt's 
Relation  "  which  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  our  immediate 


THE    PILGRIMS  231 

question.  It  has  reference  to  experiences  while  the  May- 
flower was  still  lying  at  Cape  Cod.  "  The  discommodious- 
ness  of  the  harbor  did  much  hinder  us,  for  we  could 
neither  go  to,  nor  come  from,  the  shore  but  at  high  water; 
which  was  much  to  our  hindrance  and  hurt.  For  often- 
times they  waded  to  the  middle  of  the  thigh,  and  often  to 
the  knees  to  go  and  come  from  land.  Some  did  it  neces- 
sarily, and  some  of  their  own  pleasure;  but  it  brought  to 
most,  if  not  to  all,  coughs  and  colds  —  the  weather  proving 
suddenly  cold  and  stormy  —  which  afterwards  turned  to 
the  scurvy,  whereof  many  died."  Another  passage,  relat- 
ing to  what  happened  to  the  explorers  when  out  in  search 
of  a  site  for  settlement,  is  to  the  same  effect.  "  So  we 
marched  some  while  in  the  woods,  some  while  in  the  sands, 
and  other  while  in  the  water  up  to  the  knees."  A  sample 
of  frequent  statements  is :  "  It  blowed  and  did  snow  all 
that  day  and  night,  and  froze  withal.  Some  of  our  people 
that  are  dead  took  the  original  of  their  death  there." 
Recall  the  incident  of  the  twenty  men,  who,  after  the  ques- 
tion of  a  site  had  been  determined,  resolved  to  stay  on 
shore  and  go  at  once  about  the  work  of  building.  Night 
overtook  them  before  a  shelter  could  be  made  ready.  To 
increase  the  discomfort,  the  rain  began  to  pour,  and  there 
was  no  relief  for  them  until  the  storm  had  worn  itself  out. 

True  the  women  and  children  were  not  exposed  to  these 
nights  abroad  in  the  woods  and  the  pelting  storms  and 
these  freezing  turns  in  the  weather.  But  what  they  gained 
by  not  being  out  in  rain  and  sleet  and  storm  and  where  the 
air  was  stinging  cold,  they  lost  by  being  closely  confined 
in  the  ship.  The  deaths  among  the  women  show  that  they 
suffered  even  more  than  the  men  from  the  prevailing 
scourge. 

The  two  diseases  which  were  so  fatal  were  scurvy  and 
lung  troubles.  Pneumonia  was  no  doubt  the  cause  of  not 
a  few  of  these  deaths.  Rheumatic  tendencies  were  seriously 
aggravated  by  what  had  to  be  endured.  Bradford  came 
near  dying  in  consequence  of  an  acute  attack  of  this  sort. 
But  the  fatal  diseases  were  scurvy  and  consumption. 


232  THE    PILGRIMS 


VI 

The  startling  death-roll,  however,  does  not  tell  the  whole 
story.  A  half-hundred  died,  but  of  the  half-hundred  who 
lived  many  were  brought  nigh  unto  death.  In 
Sufferings  their  time  of  "most  distress,"  so  Bradford 
of  sur-  relates,  there  were  but  six  or  seven  persons  left 

vivors  wno  were  jn  condition  to  care  for  the  sick  and 

helpless.  There,  in  "  the  depth  of  winter,"  with 
their  scant  resources  and  their  fearful  exposures,  "  infected 
with  the  scurvy  and  other  diseases "  which  their  long 
voyage  and  lack  of  suitable  accommodations  had  brought 
upon  them,  members  of  the  colony  were  passing  through 
the  Valley  of  the  Shadow,  "  sometimes  two  or  three  of  a 
day,"  with  their  nearest  and  dearest  ones  too  ill  to  minister 
to  them  in  their  closing  hours,  or  even  to  wave  them  fare- 
well as  they  were  borne  forth  on  their  long  journey.  Two 
of  those  who  were  so  tenderly  helpful  that  they  furnished 
"  a  rare  example  and  worthy  to  be  remembered,"  but  who 
were  "  so  upheld  of  the  Lord  "  that  they  were  not  "  in- 
fected either  with  the  sickness  or  lameness  "  were  William 
Brewster  and  Miles  Standish.  Well  was  it  for  the  colony 
that  God  spared  them. 

Of  the  seventeen  wives  surviving  after  the  death  of  Mrs. 
Bradford,  only  four  were  left  to  answer  to  their  names 
when  a  twelvemonth  had  passed.  Thirteen  out  of  the 
twenty-four  married  men  were  gone.  Single  men,  male 
servants,  sons  or  other  relatives,  contributed  twenty-one 
to  this  first  year's  death-roll.  Five  of  the  twelve  children 
succumbed  to  disease.  Four  households  escaped  the  infec- 
tion, but  four  were  completely  wiped  out.  Each  of  the 
remaining  sixteen  lost  one  or  more  of  its  members.  They 
had  made  no  covenant  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  land, 
and,  if  they  had  not  broken  down  their  altars,  they  had  in 
no  sense  bowed  to  them;  yet  through  all  the  months  of 
that  desolate  and  awful  winter,  Plymouth  was  a  veritable 
Bochim.  Had  it  not  been  for  their  firm  resolve,  their  faith 
in  God,  and  the  help  they  received  from  on  high,  the  Pil- 
grims must  have  wept  themselves  into  utter  despair.    The 


THE    PILGRIMS  233 

dead  were  buried,  not  on  Burial  Hill  —  the  spot  now  so 
sacred  to  such  a  large  number  of  devout  and  patriotic 
Americans  —  but  on  Coles  Hill.  This  is  a  little  elevation 
of  land  not  far  from  the  rock.  In  fear  lest  the  Indians 
should  discover  what  inroads  had  been  made  on  their  ranks, 
and  how  ill-prepared  the  remnant  of  the  little  band  must 
be  to  resist  an  attack,  the  graves  were  made  level  with  the 
ground,  and  the  whole  plat  was  smoothed  over  and  sown 
with  grain.  This  is  tradition,  but  the  tradition  is  well 
authenticated. 

VII 

It  was  exceedingly  mournful.  Still  this  was  only  the 
common  fate   of  colonies   seeking  to  make   a   permanent 

lodgment  within  our  harsh  northern  latitudes. 
A  common  Ba.ck  in  1535-36,  Car  tier  and  his  associates 
experience  [n  self-exile  attempted  to  stem  the  rigors  of  a 
of  colonies     co\^   season  in   Canada.      This   is   Parkman's 

account  of  it :  "A  malignant  scurvy  broke 
out  among  them.  Man  after  man  went  down  before  the 
hideous  disease,  till  twenty-five  were  dead,  and  only  three  or 
four  were  left  in  health.  The  sound  were  too  few  to  attend 
the  sick,  and  the  wretched  sufferers  lay  in  helpless  despair, 
dreaming  of  the  sun  and  the  vines  of  France.  The  ground, 
hard  as  flint,  defied  their  feeble  efforts,  and,  unable  to  bury 
their  dead,  they  hid  them  in  snowdrifts."  Of  the  seventy- 
nine  men  who  remained  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Croix 
under  De  Monts,  in  1604—05,  thirty-nine  died  before  relief 
could  reach  them,  and  many  more  were  near  to  death. 
Champlain  in  his  first  winter  at  Quebec,  1608-09,  when  he 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  town,  had  twenty-eight  men  with 
him.  The  middle  of  May  found  twenty  of  these  men  dead, 
with  only  four  of  the  remaining  eight  in  condition  to  do 
anything.  Even  in  Virginia  it  was  not  otherwise.  Of  the 
one  hundred  and  five  who  were  landed  at  Jamestown  in  May 
of  1607,  and  left  there  to  be  the  nucleus  of  a  settlement  by 
Captain  Newport  when  he  sailed  back  to  England,  more 
than  half,  so  says  Fiske,  were  dead  before  the  end  of  Septem- 
ber.   Here  it  was  heat  rather  than  cold  and  a  bad  location, 


234  THE    PILGRIMS 

which  did  the  mischief.  It  is  still  true,  however,  that  more 
than  half  the  colony  succumbed  to  disease  and  went  hence 
inside  of  four  months  after  reaching  the  New  World. 

In  each  of  these  instances,  save  that  of  De  Monts  at  St. 
Croix,  the  ratio  of  the  dying  to  the  living  was  greater  — 
in  some  far  greater  —  than  at  Plymouth,  while  at  St. 
Croix  the  dead,  as  among  the  Pilgrims,  was  almost  exactly 
one-half  of  the  whole  number.  But  the  remarkable  fact 
is  that  in  the  cases  here  cited  the  groups  were  made  up  en- 
tirely of  men,  and  not  of  men,  women,  and  children.  Being 
made  up  wholly  of  men,  and  chiefly  of  men  used  to  the  sea,  it 
is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  they  were  accustomed  to  hard- 
ship and  privations,  and  could  better  stand  the  brunt  of 
storm,  and  the  icy  touch  of  the  hand  of  winter  or  the  torrid 
heats  of  summer,  than  artisans  drawn  from  the  quiet  re- 
treats of  a  Dutch  city,  or  toilers  from  the  rural  districts 
of  England.  Still  this  did  not  prove  to  be  the  case.  It 
cannot  be  otherwise  than  that  the  moral  quality  of  the 
Pilgrims  must  have  counted  for  much  in  the  disheartening 
struggle  against  disease  and  death.  Be  this  as  it  may, 
however,  and  laying  no  emphasis  on  comparisons,  these 
are  all  records  to  bring  a  pallor  to  the  cheek,  and  show  us 
what  first  things  in  conquering  nature  and  building  up 
the  institutions  of  civilized  society  really  cost.  It  is  never 
anywhere  a  May-game  business,  but  an  undertaking  to 
put  faith  under  bonds,  and  challenge  courage  —  an  under- 
taking to  tax  head  and  hand,  heart  and  soul,  to  the 
utmost. 

VIII 

It  is,  indeed,  over  against  this  dark  background  of 
pain  and  sorrow  and  disappointment  and  death  that  we 

must  study  the  Pilgrims  if  we  would  under- 
Shows  stuff  stand  them  and  appreciate  their  faith  and 
of  which        pluck. 

the  Pilgrims  Rufus  Choate,  in  one  of  his  famous  orations, 
were  made     nas  a  passage  in  which  he  sets  in  contrast  the 

courage  and  fidelity  to  duty  of  this  little  band 
of  colonists,  there  on  the  remote  edge  of  the  storm-beaten 


THE    PILGRIMS  235 

coast  of  New  England,  and  the  enthusiastic  and  deter- 
mined devotion  of  Leonidas  and  his  small  following  of 
three  hundred  warriors  at  the  pass  of  Thermopylae,  face 
to  face  with  the  Persians.  The  Greeks  were  trained  sol- 
diers. Discipline  had  made  their  sinews  like  steel.  They 
were  in  a  temper  to  front  the  force  of  any  attack  which 
might  be  made  upon  them.  Heroic  traditions  of  the  past 
inspired  them.  The  conscious  gaze  and  applause  of  their 
fellow-countrymen  nerved  them  to  the  limit  of  capacity. 
In  addition  to  this,  their  struggle  was  to  be  short  and 
sharp.  The  Pilgrims  were  a  promiscuous  company  of  men, 
women,  and  children.  They  were  smitten,  bereaved,  and 
before  the  first  year  was  over  reduced  to  one-half  of  their 
original  number  by  disease.  They  were  remote  from  the 
world  and  alone  in  their  desolation.  The  eyes  which  were 
upon  them  and  the  hearts  which  sympathized  with  them 
were  few,  and  no  one  was  far-sighted  enough  to  see  the 
end  of  their  hardships.  The  contrast  is  to  the  advantage 
of  the  obscure  and  neglected  colony.  Well  it  might  be. 
History  is  not  without  many  striking  instances  of  con- 
secration to  worthy  causes  and  fortitude  under  trials,  but 
the  past  affords  no  exact  parallel  to  the  patient  and  sub- 
lime endurance  of  these  God-filled  souls. 


IX 

The  Pilgrims  had  their  chapters  of  mishaps  and  narrow 
escapes,  as  well  as  their  volumes  of  tragic  experience  and 

sorrow. 
Mishaps  Qf  the  four  men  sent  out  to  cut  w[\^  grass 

and  narrow  for  thatch,  as  the  common-house  approached 
escapes  the  stage  for  roofing,  two,  Peter  Brown  and 

John  Goodman,  strayed  off  into  the  woods  and 
were  lost.  Diligent  search  was  made  for  them  by  the  other 
two,  but  they  could  not  be  found.  Report  of  what  had 
happened  was  made  to  the  colony.  It  was  raining,  but 
Carver  took  several  men  with  him  and  continued  the  hunt. 
No  trace  of  the  missing  men  could  be  discovered.  The 
night  which  followed  was  an  anxious  one,  for  all  feared 


236  THE    PILGRIMS 

that  the  lost  men  might  have  been  captured  by  the  Indians. 
The  next  morning  a  much  larger  company,  well  armed, 
renewed  the  search.  The  effort  was  fruitless.  Meantime 
the  two  men,  who  had  not  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
Indians,  but  had  been  led  astray  by  a  pair  of  dogs  they 
had  with  them  catching  sight  of  a  deer  and  following  it 
off  into  the  woods,  wandered  about  in  hopeless  bewilder- 
ment until  night  set  in  and  arrested  further  attempts  to 
ascertain  their  whereabouts  and  get  back  home.  At  dusk 
the  rain  turned  to  sleet  and  snow.  There  was  no  shelter. 
The  men  were  in  a  pitiable  situation.  Soon  wolves  began 
to  howl  about  them.  In  case  of  an  attack  by  these  wild 
beasts,  there  was  no  help  for  them  but  climbing  a  tree. 
The  dreaded  attack  was  not  made.  The  wolves  drew  off. 
Then  the  poor  fellows  might  venture  to  move.  As  this 
was  the  only  way  they  could  keep  from  freezing,  they 
spent  the  night  walking  about.  When  morning  came,  they 
renewed  their  endeavors  to  find  out  where  they  were  and 
make  their  way  back  to  the  settlement.  It  took  them  all 
day.  When  they  did  return  they  were  in  a  sad  plight. 
Goodman's  feet  were  frost-bitten  and  badly  swollen,  and 
he  suffered  from  lameness.  "  It  was  a  long  while  after, 
ere  he  was  able  to  go."  The  experience  was  a  sorry  one, 
and  it  subtracted  a  unit  from  the  working  force  of  the 
colony  at  a  time  when  every  man  counted. 

Following  close  on  the  heels  of  the  anxiety  occasioned 
by  the  failure  of  Goodman  and  Brown  to  turn  up  when 
they  were  expected,  there  was  another  scare.  This  was  on 
Sunday  morning.  As  the  search  for  the  wanderers  on  the 
preceding  Friday  afternoon  and  all  day  Saturday  had 
been  in  vain,  the  fear  was  general  that  the  two  men  had 
fallen  victims  to  the  craft  and  cruelty  of  the  savages. 
Tidings  of  what  had  happened  on  shore,  and  of  the  grave 
apprehensions  which  were  felt  there,  had  been  brought  to 
the  ship  on  Saturday  night  by  returning  laborers.  It  is 
not  difficult  to  imagine  the  consternation  which  filled  all 
breasts  in  the  little  company,  the  talk  that  went  on, 
and  the  dreams  which  disturbed  the  broken  slumbers  of  the 
night.  In  apparent  confirmation  of  all  they  most  dreaded, 
the  early  risers  on  the  vessel,  looking  across  the  waters  of 


THE    PILGRIMS  237 

the  harbor,  saw  the  common-house  in  flames.  Only  one 
inference  could  be  drawn  —  the  Indians  had  set  the  build- 
ing on  fire.  Emboldened,  so  the  reasoning  ran,  by  their 
success  in  capturing  a  couple  of  their  white  invaders,  they 
had  made  a  determined  assault  on  the  settlement,  applied 
the  torch  to  the  half-completed  structure,  and  led  away 
or  killed  all  the  members  of  the  company  who  were  on 
land.  What  a  relief  it  must  have  been  to  ascertain  that 
the  fire  originated,  not  in  the  malice  of  savage  hearts,  but 
by  an  accidental  spark,  and  that  the  damage,  though  the 
winds  were  high  and  helping  hands  were  few  and  feeble, 
was  only  slight.  It  had  been  planned  to  have  as  many  as 
possible  go  ashore  and  worship  in  the  common-house  on 
this  Sabbath,  but  the  fire  prevented  the  carrying-out  of 
the  arrangement.  Still,  as  they  thought  of  their  two  com- 
panions back  again,  of  the  groundlessness  of  their  fears 
of  Indian  treachery  and  assault,  of  the  safety  of  their 
property,  and  of  precious  lives  preserved,  the  heart  of 
every  Pilgrim  must  have  swelled  with  gratitude;  and 
"Thank  God"  must  have  been  the  warm  ejaculation 
which  went  up  like  a  song  of  grateful  praise  from  every 
lip.  A  week  later,  on  the  last  Sabbath  and  the  last  day 
of  January,  all  who  were  able  gathered  on  shore,  and  for 
the  first  time  held  their  worship  in  the  common-house. 

In  connection  with  this  fire  in  the  thatch  of  the  common- 
house  at  that  early  hour  on  Sunday  morning,  when  the 
wind  was  blowing  a  gale,  one  trembles  at  thought  of  a 
possible  loss  which  would  have  been  more  serious  than  the 
loss  of  any  number  of  buildings.  When  those  flames  broke 
out  the  floor  was  covered  with  beds.  Carver  and  Bradford 
were  lying  on  a  couple  of  them  critically  ill.  Who  else 
was  there  in  the  same  sore  straits  we  are  not  told.  To  add 
to  the  peril  from  flames  and  sickness,  the  loaded  muskets  of 
the  company  were  in  that  room.  Stored  in  the  same  room, 
too,  most  likely,  was  a  part  of  their  supply  of  powder. 
But  the  two  leaders  somehow  made  a  hurried  escape,  the 
fire  did  not  reach  the  guns  and  ammunition,  and  there 
was  no  explosion.  Well  might  Winslow  say :  "  Blessed  be 
God,  there  was  no  harm  done."  For  one  cannot  contem- 
plate such  a  disaster  as  might  have  befallen  Carver  and 


238  THE    PILGRIMS 

Bradford  then  and  there,  without  feeling  that  the  sud- 
den death  of  these  men,  in  the  circumstances  in  which  they 
then  were,  would  have  brought  the  whole  enterprise  to 
an  end. 


There  are  other  matters  of  grave  importance  as  well  as 
of  permanent  interest  which,  in  their  incipiency  at  least, 
naturally  fall  into  place  in  the  story  of  the 
The  return  experiences  of  the  Pilgrims  during  their  first 
of  the  winter  at  Plymouth.     But  as  these  topics  are 

Mayflower  to  have  an  independent  and  orderly  treat- 
ment in  the  pages  which  follow,  no  further 
reference  to  them  seems  to  be  necessary  in  this  connection. 
There  is  one  event,  however,  whose  record  belongs  here  and 
nowhere  else.  It  is  the  sailing  away  of  the  May-flower  on 
the  homeward  voyage.  Pew  incidents  in  the  history  of 
the  colony  are  more  tenderly  pathetic;  few  show  the 
resolute  purpose,  the  high  courage,  the  steadfast  faith, 
and  the  moral  elevation  of  the  colonists  in  a  better  light. 

The  ship  got  off  on  Thursday,  the  fifteenth  of  April. 
She  had  been  lying  at  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Plymouth 
since  Saturday,  the  twenty-sixth  of  December.  This 
was  almost  four  months.  The  sight  of  her  must  have 
become  a  familiar  and  cherished  object  to  the  anxious 
toilers  on  the  shore.  But  why  did  the  vessel  not  take  her 
departure  at  an  earlier  date?  The  impatience  of  Captain 
Jones  with  what  seemed  to  him  the  fastidiousness  of  the 
Pilgrims  in  choosing  a  site  for  settlement,  and  his  im- 
plied, if  not  open,  threat  to  dump  the  whole  party  and 
their  goods  down  anywhere  on  the  shore  and  sail  away 
and  leave  them  to  their  fate,  if  they  did  not  act  promptly, 
will  be  recalled.  What  made  him  willing  to  lengthen  out 
his  stay  to  more  than  a  hundred  days  after  a  "  place  for 
habitation  "  had  been  found  and  occupied?  These  reasons 
are  given  by  Bradford: 

It  was  near  the  end  of  December  before  the  colonists 
were  in  condition  to  take  any  of  the  freight  of  the  ship  on 


THE    PILGRIMS  239 

shore.  The  fire  in  the  thatch  of  the  common-house  delayed 
preparations  for  receiving  goods  on  land,  and  drove  some 
who  were  weak  and  ill  back  to  the  ship  for  shelter.  Very 
soon  sickness  began  to  increase  among  them  to  an  alarm- 
ing extent,  and  the  people  were  practically  helpless.  Con- 
sidering the  facts  —  so  many  smitten  by  disease  and  so 
many  already  dead  —  the  governor  and  his  advisers 
thought  it  wise  to  retain  the  ship  until  they  could  see  how 
matters  were  to  turn  with  them.  The  Indians  were  a 
menace  which  they  were  not  able  to  dismiss  from  their 
minds,  and  until  they  could  get  things  on  shore  in  a  posture 
for  defense,  it  seemed  necessary  to  have  the  vessel  near  at 
hand  for  a  safe  refuge,  even  though  this  precaution  would 
add  a  considerable  sum  to  the  cost  of  transportation. 
Besides  —  a  most  conclusive  reason  for  delay  —  the 
diseases  which  had  seized  and  prostrated  so  many  of  the 
passengers,  laid  hold  on  the  men,  with  the  result  that 
many  had  died,  and  many  who  had  not  passed  away  were 
sick  and  weak,  and  the  captain  was  afraid  to  put  to  sea 
until  his  men  were  better  and  the  weather  signs  were  more 
auspicious. 

But  the  time  came  at  length  when  the  ship  which  had 
brought  them  sa?fely  across  the  sea,  which  had  been  their 
home  for  so  long,  within  whose  narrow  walls  many  earnest 
councils  had  been  held,  plans  formed,  an  immortal  state 
paper  adopted,  the  sick  nursed,  children  born,  the  eyes  of 
the  dead  tenderly  closed,  and  the  last  tributes  paid  to 
departed  associates,  was  to  lift  her  anchor,  spread  her 
sails,  catch  a  favoring  breeze,  drop  over  the  eastern 
horizon,  and  fade  out  of  view.  Should  she  set  her  prow 
to  the  dear  old  home-land  with  only  the  master  and  his 
remnant  of  a  crew  aboard?  Did  Carver  and  Bradford, 
both  of  them  worn  with  sickness  and  care,  and  the  governor 
unconsciously  close  to  the  border  line  of  life,  did  Brewster 
and  Winslow,  did  Standish  and  Hopkins,  think  it  better 
to  let  the  vessel  go  and  leave  them  there,  cut  off  from  all 
chances  of  retreat,  from  all  resources  save  those  which  were 
found  in  themselves,  to  keep  up  the  struggle  for  a  foot- 
hold on  that  bleak  shore?  If  the  leaders  were  still  brave 
and  persistent,  was  there  no  one  in  the  rank  and  file  of 


240  THE    PILGRIMS 

their  followers  who  had  become  faint-hearted  and  ready  to 
quit  ? 

Early  and  late  the  faith  and  pluck,  the  high  resolve  and 
absolute  consecration  of  the  Pilgrims  were  put  to  many 
and  severe  tests.  Few  of  them  could  have  been  more  trying 
and  severe  than  standing  there  on  the  uplands  on  that 
mid-April  day,  with  the  graves  of  their  beloved  at  their 
feet,  with  an  unbroken  forest  behind  them,  with  no  white 
neighbors  within  a  sweep  of  hundreds  of  miles,  and  seeing 
the  ship  in  which  they  might  all  of  them  have  embarked 
sailing  away  and  leaving  them  to  a  duty  from  which  there 
was  no  escape. 

That  act  set  the  seal  to  their  purpose  to  do  and  die  in 
furtherance  of  the  holy  project  for  which  they  had  crossed 
the  sea. 

James  Russell  Lowell  looked  on  this  scene  with  a  poet's 
eye,  and  he  caught  the  significance  of  it,  and  set  it  forth 
as  the  crowning  testimony  to  the  valor  and  unconquerable 
determination  of  the  Pilgrims.  He  says :  "  Surely,  if  the 
Greek  could  boast  his  Thermopylae,  where  three  hundred 
men  fell  in  resisting  the  Persians,  we  may  well  be  proud  of 
our  Plymouth  Rock,  where  a  handful  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  not  merely  faced,  but  vanquished  winter,  famine, 
the  wilderness,  and  the  more  invincible  storge  that  drew 
them  back  to  the  green  island  far  away.  They  found  no 
lotus  growing  upon  the  surly  shore,  the  taste  of  which 
could  make  them  forget  their  little  native  Ithaca ;  nor  were 
they  so  wanting  to  themselves  in  faith  as  to  burn  their 
ships,  but  could  see  the  fair  west  wind  belly  the  homeward 
sail,  and  then  turn  unrepining  to  grapple  with  the  terrible 
Unknown."  Not  a  Pilgrim  went  back  on  the  returning 
Mayflower* 


XII 

MAKING    A    LIVING 


With  great  difficulty  we  have  preserved  our  lives  ;  insomuch  as  when  I 
look  back  upon  our  condition,  and  weak  means  to  preserve  the  same,  I 
rather  admire  at  God's  mercy  and  providence  in  our  preservation,  than  that 
no  greater  things  have  been  effected  by  us.  But  though  our  beginning  hath 
been  .  .  .  raw,  small,  and  difficult,  .  .  .  yet  the  same  God  that  hath  hitherto 
led  us  through  the  former,  I  hope  will  raise  means  to  accomplish  the  latter. 
Not  that  we  altogether,  or  principally  propound  profit  to  be  the  main  end  of 
that  we  have,  undertaken,  but  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  honor  of  our  Country. 

Edward  Winslow. 

The  London  partners  sent  out  no  provisions  and  very  few  goods.  A 
scarcity  of  food,  often  extreme,  continued  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  for  the 
first  four  years.  The  agricultural  arrangements  of  the  Colony  were  as  yet 
very  imperfect,  and  the  chief  dependence  during  all  that  period  was  on 
corn  purchased  of  the  Indians.  .  .  .  The  clams  with  which  the  harbor  of 
Plymouth  abounded  were  also  an  essential  resource.  At  certain  seasons 
fish  were  plenty ;  but  for  some  time  the  Colonists  were  so  unprovided  as  to 
have  neither  nets  nor  other  tackle  with  which  to  take  them,  nor  salt  to  pre- 
serve them.  —  Richard  Hildreth. 

They  worked  against  tremendous  odds  there  on  that  barren  coast; 
but  they  wrung  a  living  from  it  almost  from  the  first,  and  year  by 
year  patiently  learned  to  succeed  at  the  hard  thing  they  had  undertaken. 

Woodrow  Wilson. 

The  first  years  of  the  residence  of  Puritans  in  America  were  years  of 
great  hardship  and  affliction ;  it  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  this  short  season 
of  distress  was  not  promptly  followed  by  abundance  and  happiness. 

George  Bancroft. 


XII 

MAKING   A   LIVING 

WHEN  the  fateful  winter  was  over,  and  the  precious 
dead  were  buried,  and  the  Mayflower  had  sailed 
away  to  the  home-land,  the  surviving  Pilgrims, 
bating  no  jot  of  heart  or  hope,  but  still  determined  to  push 
their  enterprise  right  on  to  a  successful  conclusion,  found 
several  very  serious  and  pressing  problems  on  their  hands. 
To  begin  with  they  had  to  make  a  living. 


Governor  Carver  and  his  wife,  and  a  few  others,  did  not 
die  till  after  the  departure  of  the  ship  early  in  April.    But 

at  the  end  of  the  first  year,  as  has  been  shown, 
The  supply  there  remained  only  fifty-one  of  the  colonists, 
producing  This  group  of  fifty-one  was  made  up  of  eleven 
force  men  wno  nad  been  married,  though  seven  of 

them  were  now  widowers,  six  single  men,  four 
wives,  ten  sons  or  male  relatives,  seven  daughters  or  female 
relatives,  five  male  servants,  one  female  servant,  and  seven 
children  of  whom  five  were  boys  and  two  were  girls.  In 
scanning  this  list  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  supply-producing 
members  of  the  company  were  not  many.  On  these  few 
devolved  the  task  of  supporting  the  whole  body.  Day  by 
day,  through  summer  and  winter,  and  year  after  year, 
these  workers  with  absolutely  no  experience  in  the  larger 
part  of  the  activities  in  which  they  were  to  engage  and  the 
life  they  were  to  live,  with  few  available  resources,  and  with 
small  succor  to  reach  them  from  abroad,  were  to  secure  food, 


244  THE    PILGRIMS 

clothing,  shelter  for  themselves  and  all  dependent  upon 
them,  and  whatever  else  might  be  necessary  to  the  mainte- 
nance of  self-respect  and  propriety  in  their  domestic  and 
social  relations.    It  was  an  arduous  task  to  face. 

To  the  colonists  who  had  lived  through  the  winter  the 
opening  of  spring  brought  improved  health,  fresh  encour- 
agement, and  a  fair  chance  to  get  on  their  feet. 
The  cheer  They  planted  corn,  and  though  the  yield  was 
of  spring  small,  yet  with  the  meal  which  this  first  crop 
furnished,  and  the  fish  which  they  caught,  and 
the  ducks,  and  "  the  great  store  of  wild  turkeys,"  and  the 
deer  secured,  they  "  had  all  things  in  good  plenty."  Letters 
full  of  satisfaction  and  hope  were  sent  back  to  friends  in 
England.  The  outlook  was  bright.  Houses  enough  to 
answer  the  needs  of  all  for  shelter  had  been  built.  They  were 
comfortably  clothed.  The  seed  brought  over  in  the  ship, 
and  from  which  they  expected  to  raise  "  wheat  and  peas  " 
"  came  not  to  good ;  "  still  they  had  sufficient  food  in  store 
or  in  prospect  for  the  coming  months,  and  they  looked  for- 
ward to  the  approaching  winter  without  misgiving.  Their 
hearts  could  not  have  ceased  aching;  and  there  were  mo- 
ments, no  doubt,  when  tides  of  memory  swept  over  their 
souls  and  they  were  in  the  deep  waters;  but  they  were 
steadfast  and  confident.  Each  succeeding  sunrise  was  a 
fresh  prophecy  of  brighter  mornings  to  dawn.  Things  were 
coming  their  way. 

II 

Not  yet,  however,  had  these  rare  spirits  been  sufficiently 
disciplined  in  the  school  of  disappointment  and  bitter,  bewil- 
dering sorrow.  The  skies,  so  bright  in  those 
More  disci-  m€U0w  autumn  days,  were  again  to  be  shrouded 
pline  in  jn  the  gl00m  of  night,  and  charged  with  fierce 
store  electric    storms.      The    day    was    not   yet    at 

hand. 

On  November  21 — just  a  year  to  a  day  after  the 
Mayflower  had  come  to  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  the  future 
Provincetown,  the  Fortune  arrived  at  Plymouth.  She  came 
from  the  Merchant  Adventurers,  and  brought  Robert  Cush- 


THE    PILGRIMS  245 

man,  who  was  over  on  business,  and  thirty-five  new  settlers. 
The   voyage   had   been    an    extraordinarily    long    one  — 

between  four  and  five  months  —  and  all  on 
The  arrival  board  were  reduced  to  a  sore  plight.  Instead 
of  the  0f  bringing  anything,  except  a  little  clothing, 

Fortune  to  help  the  colonists,  the  coming  of  this  ship 

meant  simply  thirty-five  more  mouths  to  be  fed 
and  thirty-five  more  heads  to  be  sheltered,  and  thirty-five 
more  bodies  to  be  covered.  In  concluding  his  account 
of  this  accession  to  the  colony,  Bradford  makes  the  very 
natural  comment :  "  The  plantation  was  glad  of  this  ad- 
dition of  strength,  but  could  have  wished  that  many  of 
them  had  been  in  better  condition,  and  all  of  them  better 
furnished  with  provisions."  To  add  to  the  perplexities  of 
the  case,  the  newcomers  had  in  them  very  little  of  the  spirit 
and  purpose  of  the  Pilgrims.  "  For  most  of  them  were 
lusty  young  men,  and  many  of  them  wild  enough,  who  little 
considered  whither,  or  about  what  they  went."  Good  raw 
material,  it  may  be;  but  not  just  the  kind  of  stuff  to 
measure  up  to  the  present  situation. 

So  soon  as  the  Fortune  had  sailed  away,  account  of  stock 
was  taken,  the  fear  of  famine  was  looked  squarely  in  the 

face,  and  the  best  preparations  possible  were 
Famine  made  to  avert  it.  "  The  Governor  and  his  asso- 

threatened     ciates  having  disposed  these  late  comers  into 

several  families,  as  they  best  could,  took  an 
exact  account  of  all  their  provisions  in  store,  and  propor- 
tioned the  same  to  the  number  of  persons,  and  found  that  it 
would  not  hold  out  above  six  months  at  half  allowance,  and 
hardly  that.  And  they  could  not  well  give  less  this  winter- 
time till  fish  came  again.  So  they  presently  put  to  half 
allowance,  one  as  well  as  another,  what  began  to  be  hard, 
but  they  bore  it  patiently  under  hope  of  supply."  With 
all  their  care,  however,  in  allotting  food  to  individuals  and 
limiting  the  amount  each  was  to  receive,  starvation  pressed 
the  colony  hard  and  threatened  its  utter  annihilation. 
Month  by  month  through  the  long,  trying  winter  the  cords 
of  want  were  drawn  closer  and  closer  about  them.  May 
found  the  handful  of  meal  in  the  barrel  well-nigh  spent,  and 
the  little  oil  in  the  cruse  exhausted.     It  was  a  sorry  con- 


246  THE    PILGRIMS 

dition,  and  one  which  must  have  taxed  to  the  utmost  the 
faith  of  the  Pilgrims.  They  strained  their  eager  eyes  in 
vain,  trying  to  catch  sight  of  a  ship  sailing  to  their  relief. 
Oh,  Weston,  Weston,  was  there  no  pulse  of  sympathy  beat- 
ing in  thy  bosom,  or  was  thy  heart  altogether  a  heart  of 
stone !    How  vain  their  "  hope  of  supply." 


Ill 

Help  came  to  them  from  an  unexpected  source.    An  utter 
stranger,  one  "  Captain  So  and  So,"  the  captain  of  a  vessel 

which  was  one  of  a  fishing  fleet  trying  the 
Help  ob-  waters  off  at  the  eastward  of  them,  sent  them 
tained  warm  Christian  salutations   and  a  wholesome 

warning  against  possible  assaults  by  a  savage 
foe.  Edward  Winslow  took  boat  and  went  back  with  the 
messenger  who  brought  the  kindly  note,  and  laid  the  distress 
of  the  colony  before  this  "  gentill-man  "  and  his  associates, 
and  made  an  appeal  for  provisions.  "  By  which  means  he 
got  some  good  quantity  and  returned  in  safety."  But  this 
"  good  quantity  "  was  after  all  only  a  small  quantity  in 
comparison  with  their  needs.  "  Yet  by  God's  blessing  it 
upheld  them  till  harvest.  It  arose  but  to  a  quarter  of  a 
pound  of  bread  a  day  to  each  person ;  and  the  governor 
caused  it  to  be  daily  given  them,  otherwise,  had  it  been 
in  their  own  custody,  they  would  have  eaten  it  up  and  then 
starved.  But  thus,  with  what  else  they  could  get,  they  made 
pretty  shift  till  corn  was  ripe."  Another  sharp  corner  was 
turned.  Another  milestone  was  reached  on  the  wearisome 
journey  to  assured  success. 

But  there  were  other  sharp  corners  to  be  turned,  and 
other  wearisome  stretches  of  road  to  be  travelled,  before 

these  sorely-smitten  but  resolute  colonists  could 
Corn  crop  dismiss  anxious  forecastings  from  their  minds, 
light  They   had   reached   the   corn    harvest    of   the 

second  year;  but  the  yield  was  so  slight,  and 
some  of  the  more  reckless  of  their  number — mainly  the  new- 
comers most  likely  —  had  stealthily  invaded  the  fields  and 
made  such  free  use  of  the  unripe  ears,  that  what  was  gath- 


THE    PILGRIMS  247 

ered  gave  but  small  promise  of  security  against  pinching 
hunger  in  the  days  near  at  hand.  "  Now  the  welcome  time 
of  harvest  approached,  in  which  all  had  their  hungry  bellies 
filled.  But  it  arose  but  to  a  little  in  comparison  of  a  full 
year's  supply."  Gaunt  famine  still  stalked  ahead  of  them 
and  darkened  the  way.  It  looked  as  if  the  sad  experiences 
of  the  past  winter  were  to  be  repeated  in  the  coming  winter 
—  only  with  less  and  less  of  strength  and  fortitude  to  en- 
dure them. 

"  Behold  now  another  providence  of  God :  a  ship  comes 
into  the  harbor,  one  Captain  Jones  being  the  chief  therein." 

This  ship  had  beads  and  knives  to  sell.  Extor- 
TJnexpected  tionate  prices  were  charged  for  the  articles,  and 
help  again     only  the  lowest  prices  were  offered  for  beaver ; 

but  the  straitened  colonists  were  glad  to  make 
the  exchange  on  almost  any  terms.  The  beads  and  knives 
they  could  readily  dispose  of  to  the  Indians  for  corn.  They 
bought  the  trinkets  and  immediately  sold  them  for  the  food 
they  so  much  required;  although  on  their  importunity 
they  felt  constrained  to  share  this  bit  of  good  fortune  with 
Weston's  people  at  Weymouth.  In  this  way  they  added  to 
their  small  store  enough  to  carry  them  over  into  the  next 
year.  Nevertheless  the  struggle  was  a  sharp  one,  and  their 
scant  supply  had  to  be  eked  out  by  every  economy  possible. 

IV 

After  the  first  winter,  when  their  sufferings  were  not  so 
much  from  want  of  food  as  from  sickness,  although  they 

were  in  great  need  of  proper  food,  until  they 
The  trying  were  securely  established  and  had  bread  enough 
period  ancj  ^0  Spare,  the  period  between  seed-sowing 

and  ingathering  seems  to  have  been  the  most 
trying  one  for  the  Pilgrims.  Supplies  were  exhausted,  and 
the  earth  had  not  yet  yielded  her  increase  for  the  suste- 
nance of  man.  Game  was  obtainable  at  certain  times  in  the 
year,  and  wild  berries ;  but  the  tribes  of  the  waters  and  the 
mollusks  of  the  shores  were  the  chief  resources  open  to  them 
in  the  early  summer  months.  They  had  but  poor  equipment 
for  successful  catches,  but  against  starvation  fishing  was 


248  THE    PILGRIMS 

the  ready  alternative  to  which  they  turned.  It  was  fishing, 
with  a  hand  given  also  to  clam-digging  and  hunting,  to 
which  they  had  recourse  in  the  present  extremity. 

Only  Bradford,  however,  can  tell  the  impressive  story 
in  suitable  fashion.  "  They  having  but  one  boat  left  and 
she  not  over  well  fitted,  they  were  divided  into  several  com- 
panies, six  or  seven  to  a  gang  or  company;  and  so  went 
out  with  a  net  they  had  bought,  to  take  bass  and  such  like 
fish,  by  course,  every  company  knowing  their  turn.  No 
sooner  was  the  boat  discharged  of  what  she  brought,  but 
the  next  company  took  her  and  went  out  with  her.  Neither 
did  they  return  till  they  had  caught  something,  though  it 
were  five  or  six  days  before,  for  they  knew  there  was  nothing 
at  home,  and  to  go  home  empty  would  be  a  great  discour- 
agement to  the  rest.  Yea,  they  strove  who  should  do  best. 
If  she  stayed  long  or  got  little,  then  all  went  to  seeking 
shell-fish,  which  at  low  water  they  digged  out  of  the  sands. 
And  this  was  their  living  in  the  summer  time,  till  God  sent 
them  better,  and  in  winter  they  were  helped  with  ground 
nuts  and  fowl.  Also  in  the  summer  they  got  now  and  then 
a  deer ;  for  one  or  two  of  the  fittest  were  appointed  to  range 
the  woods  for  that  end,  and  what  was  got  that  way  was 
divided  amongst  them."  Those  were  hard  times.  Well 
might  people  who  were  suffering  this  measure  of  depriva- 
tion and  hardship  be  comforted  by  such  fit  words  as  these : 
"  Let  it  not  be  grievous  unto  you  that  you  have  been  in- 
struments to  break  the  ice  for  others  to  come  after  with  less 
difficulty,  the  honor  shall  be  yours  to  the  world's  end." 


The  embarrassments  were  increased  by  the  coming  to 
Plymouth  from  time  to  time  of  persons  who  were  in  want  of 
everything,  but  had  nothing.  They  brought 
Embarrass-  mouths  to  be  fed,  but  no  food.  They  added  to 
ing  acces-  the  volume  of  hunger,  but  they  made  no  contri- 
sions  butions  to  the  supplies. 

Recall  how  it  was  with  the  thirty-five  who  were  landed 
from  the  Fortune.    On  another  occasion,  when  "  in  a  man- 


THE    PILGRIMS  249 

ner  their  provisions  were  wholly  spent,"  seven  men  from  one 
of  Weston's  fishing  craft,  "  wanting  victuals  "  were  thrown 
on  the  hospitality  of  the  colonists,  and  they  "  gave  them  as 
good  as  any  of  their  own."  On  still  another  occasion, 
though  warned  to  the  contrary  by  Cushman,  who  at  length 
had  come  to  understand  the  utter  rottenness  of  the  man's 
character,  after  Weston  had  openly  broken  with  the  colony, 
and  they  all  knew  how  untrustworthy  and  contemptible 
he  was,  they  took  in  "  about  sixty  lusty  men  "  whom  he 
had  asked  them  to  receive,  and  gave  them  "  friendly  enter- 
tainment." For  "  the  most  part  of  the  summer "  they 
housed  them,  and  with  the  best  means  and  tenderest  care  the 
place  afforded  ministered  to  their  "  many  sick."  When 
those  of  this  Weston  company  who  were  able  went  away  to 
lay  the  foundation  of  their  settlement,  they  left  their  sick 
at  Plymouth  till  houses  were  ready  for  them.  But  the 
sturdy  and  self-respecting  Pilgrims  refused  to  accept  any 
food  from  them,  "  though  they  were  in  great  want."  Nor 
would  they  take  "  anything  else  in  recompense  for  any  cour- 
tesy done  them."  They  "  saw  they  were  an  unruly  com- 
pany," and  the  less  they  had  to  do  with  them  the  better. 
These  obscure  and  feeble  planters  were  after  all  a  canny 
folk,  and  they  had  lots  of  long-distance  wisdom. 

But  shrewd  as  they  were,  they  were  always  kind.  They 
were  kind  even  to  Weston  long  after  his  dishonest  and 
scheming  nature  had  been  revealed  to  them.  He  himself 
came  to  them  in  great  distress,  and  they  helped  him.  They 
took  him  into  their  bosom  and  warmed  him.  In  return 
he  gave  them  a  viper's  sting.  "  Let  favor  be  showed  to  the 
wicked,  yet  will  he  not  learn  righteousness :  in  the  land  of 
uprightness,  will  he  deal  wrongfully." 


VI 

The  return  of  the  third  spring  found  the  colony  prepared 
to  operate  on  a  new  system.  Hitherto  the  organization  of 
their  industry  had  been  on  a  communistic  basis.  It  was 
each  for  all  and  all  for  each  by  constraint.  The  plan  was 
tried  in  some  measure  by  the  early  disciples.    It  was  tried 


250  THE    PILGRIMS 

very  thoroughly  by  the  Pilgrims.  If  there  were  ever  sets 
of  men  and  women  in  the  world  who  might  have  been  ex- 
pected to  work  the  scheme  successfully,  it  was 
Abandon-  these  —  these  early  disciples  and  these  later 
ing  plant-  disciples  who  had  in  them  so  much  of  the  spirit 
ing  in  0f  the  Master,  and  whose  sense  of  brotherhood 

common  was  so  yital  and  controlling,  and  whose  motives 

for  coming  out  ahead  were  so  imperative.  But 
even  under  these  conditions  the  policy  failed.  It  failed 
because  it  could  not  help  failing.  It  failed  because  it  cuts 
across  the  grain  of  human  nature  and  is  at  war  with  human 
instincts. 

"  So,  ...  on  the  approach  of  seeding-time,  .  .  .  they 
began  to  think  how  they  might  raise  as  much  corn  as  they 
could,  and  obtain  a  better  crop  than  they  had  done  before." 
"  After  much  debate,"  it  was  decided  that,  while  "  in  all 
other  things  "  they  were  "  to  go  on  in  the  general  way  as 
before,"  the  growing  of  corn  was  to  be  turned  over  to  in- 
dividuals. With  this  end  in  view  parcels  of  land  were  as- 
signed to  each  family,  according  to  the  number  of  each; 
and  all  were  allowed  and  encouraged  to  plant  and  raise 
what  they  could.  The  new  plan  succeeded.  It  appealed  to 
self-respect.  It  stirred  ambition  and  provoked  industry. 
It  allayed  discontent  and  made  it  an  object  to  do  the  best 
one  might.  It  stimulated  a  healthy  rivalry  in  toil.  The 
more  prudent  and  thrifty  could  not  help  feeling  a  fresh 
satisfaction  and  pride  in  their  work.  It  supplied  an  ade- 
quate motive  to  the  strong  to  put  forth  their  strength  and 
show  what  they  could  do.  "  Much  more  corn  was  planted 
than  otherwise  would  have  been.  .  .  .  The  women  now  went 
willingly  into  the  field,  and  took  their  little  ones  with  them 
to  set  corn." 

But  though  a  larger  acreage  than  ever  before  had  been 
devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  corn,  and  the  chances  were 
apparently  good  for  an  abundant  harvest,  the 
Supplies  crop  was  not  yet  matured.  Through  the  latter 
very  low  weeks  of  spring  and  the  long  summer  the 
pressure  of  extreme  want  was  upon  them ;  and 
their  living  was  literally  just  from  hand  to  mouth.  "  By 
that  their  corn  was  planted,  all  their  victuals  were  spent. 


THE    PILGRIMS  251 

and  they  were  only  to  rest  on  God's  providence;  at  night 
not  many  times  knowing  where  to  have  a  bit  of  anything 
the  next  day."  When  the  Anne  and  the  Little  James,  about 
midway  between  sowing  and  reaping,  brought  an  addition 
of  sixty  to  Plymouth,  "  the  best  dish  "  which  the  colonists 
could  set  before  them  "  was  a  lobster,  or  a  piece  of  fish,  with- 
out bread  or  anything  else  but  a  cup  of  fair  spring  water." 
It  is  small  surprise  that  these  newcomers,  "  when  they 
saw  the  low  and  poor  condition  "  of  the  colonists,  "  were 
much  daunted  and  dismayed ;"  and  "  wished,"  some  of  them, 
that  they  were  back  "  in  England  again,"  while  "  others 
fell  aweeping,  fancying  their  own  misery,"  in  the  misery 
they  saw  before  them.  One  cannot  help  feeling  the  per- 
tinency and  the  pathos  of  the  comparison  Governor  Brad- 
ford instituted  between  the  condition  of  his  own  people  at 
this  time  and  that  of  the  Chosen  People  at  one  of  those  times 
when  famine  was  upon  them.  He  recalled  the  distress  which 
Jacob  experienced,  and  the  directions  the  old  patriarch 
gave  his  sons  to  go  and  buy  food  that  they  might  live  and 
not  die.  But  he  also  recalled  the  fact  that  they  had  "  great 
herds,  and  store  of  cattle  of  sundry  kinds,  which,  beside 
flesh,  must  needs  produce  other  food,  as  milk,  butter,  and 
cheese ;  and  yet  it  was  counted  a  sore  affliction."  Whereas 
his  own  people  "  not  only  wanted  the  staff  of  bread,  but  all 
these  things,  and  had  no  Egypt  to  go  to."  Think  what  it 
must  have  meant  through  all  those  years  to  have  been  with- 
out a  drop  of  milk  —  save,  perhaps,  a  little  goat's  milk  — 
or  an  ounce  of  fresh  butter! 

vn 

This  fair  promise  of  abundant  harvest  in  the  autumn 
came  near  being  sharply  broken.    The  famine  which  pinched 
was  accompanied  by  a  drought  which  consumed. 
An  alarm-     Beginning  near  the  end  of  May  there  was  a 
in£  period  of  six  weeks  or  more  in  which  there  was 

drought  no  rain.    The  heavens  over  them  were  brass  and 

the  earth  was  dissolving  into  choking  dust. 
Morning  by  morning  the  sun  rose  only  to  beat  down  on  them 
with  fierce  heat ;  and  evening  by  evening  the  sun  set  with  no 


252  THE    PILGRIMS 

sign  of  an  approaching  cloud  in  the  sky.  Bradford  says 
that  "  some  of  the  dryer  ground  was  parched  like  withered 
hay."  It  was  inevitable  that  the  corn  should  feel  the  effects 
of  the  scorching  rays  and  this  lack  of  moisture.  Winslow 
adds :  "  Both  blade  and  stock  "  of  their  corn  were  "  hang- 
ing the  head  and  changing  the  color  in  such  manner  "  that 
the  poor  Pilgrims  judged  them  to  be  "  utterly  dead."  Their 
"  beans  also  rose  not  up,  according  to  their  wonted  manner ; 
but  stood  at  stay  —  many  being  parched  away,  as  though 
they  had  been  parched  before  the  fire."  It  looked  as  if  their 
new  plan,  and  "  their  great  pains  and  industry,"  and  the 
"  hopes  "  which  they  cherished  of  "  a  large  crop,"  were  all 
to  come  to  naught.  The  author  last  quoted  felt  con- 
strained to  confess  that  "  the  most  courageous  were  now 
discouraged." 

In  their  dire  extremity  these  good  men  fell  on  their  knees. 
The  authorities  "  set  apart  a  solemn  day  of  humiliation  " 
on  which  the  people  were  "  to  seek  the  Lord  by 
A  day  of       humble   and   fervent  prayer."     For  eight  or 
prayer  njne  nours  they  were  together  in  their  accus- 

tomed place  of  worship.  What  confessions  of 
unworthiness,  what  pleadings  of  the  promises,  what  agoniz- 
ing cries  for  help,  during  these  hours  must  have  ascended  to 
the  ear  of  the  Almighty  from  these  earnest  souls!  The 
answers  were  "  gracious  and  speedy."  "  All  the  morning, 
and  greatest  part  of  the  day,  it  was  clear  weather  and  very 
hot,  and  not  a  cloud  or  any  sign  of  rain  to  be  seen,  yet  to- 
ward evening  it  began  to  overcast,  and  shortly  after  to  rain, 
with  such  sweet  and  gentle  showers,  as  gave  them  cause  of 
rejoicing  and  blessing  God."  The  result  of  this  in  reviving 
"  the  decayed  corn  and  other  fruits  —  was  wonderful  to 
see."    The  early  hopes  of  a  large  crop  were  realized. 


vin 

Besides,  the  wisdom  of  their  new  scheme  was  abundantly 
justified.  In  this  connection  Bradford  has  a  passage  of 
special  significance ;  for  it  not  only  states  for  us  the  out- 
come of  this  experiment,  but  it  also  marks  a  turning  point 


THE    PILGRIMS  253 

in  the  struggles  of  the  Pilgrims.  They  were  never  again 
to  be  in  sore  straits  for  something  to  eat.     "  By  this  time 

harvest  was  come,  and  instead  of  famine,  now 
New  in-  q0(j  gaVe  them  plenty,  and  the  face  of  things 

dustrial  was  changed,  to  the  rejoicing  of  the  hearts  of 

scheme  many,  for  which  they  blessed  God.     And  the 

justified         effect  of  their  particular  "  —  individual,  and 

not  all  in  common  —  "  planting  was  well  seen ; 
for  all  had,  one  way  and  another,  pretty  well  to  bring  the 
year  about ;  and  some  of  the  abler  sort  and  more  industrious 
had  to  spare,  and  sell  to  others,  so  as  any  general  want  or 
famine  hath  not  been  amongst  them  since  to  this  day." 
Well  might  these  devout  and  grateful  colonists,  so  signally 
relieved  and  helped,  recognize  the  new  turn  their  affairs  had 
taken  by  following  up  the  day  of  fasting  and  humiliation, 
in  which  they  had  uttered  their  confessions  and  made  known 
their  wants  to  the  heavenly  Father,  with  a  day  of  thanks- 
giving in  which  to  express  their  acknowledgments  of  the 
divine  goodness,  their  confidence  in  the  infinite  mercy  that 
overruled  their  lives,  and  the  quiet  but  boundless  joy  they 
felt  in  the  deliverance  which  had  come  to  them  from  God. 
The  stage  of  luxury  had  not  been  reached ;  nor  had  they  yet 
an  adequate  supply  of  what  would  be  deemed  the  simple 
requirements  of  a  comfortable  life;  but  these  godly  men 
and  women  were  no  longer  to  do  their  work  on  empty 
stomachs. 

IX 

After  this,  from  time  to  time,  resources  for  better  living 
began  to  increase.     But  while  the  Pilgrims  from  this  date 
on  had  enough  to  satisfy  hunger  and  keep  their 
Lived  bodies  in  good  physical  condition,  their  living 

simply  was  very  smiple.     This  of  necessity.    Tea  and 

coffee  had  not  come  into  use  in  those  early  days 
of  the  Pilgrims.  It  was  not  until  1652  that  the  first  coffee- 
house was  opened  in  London.  It  was  a  full  half  century 
later  than  this  when  the  first  coffee  plant  was  carried  to  the 
West  Indies.  About  the  same  time  that  coffee  was  intro- 
duced tea  began  to  make  its  appearance  in  the  circles  of  rich 


254  THE    PILGRIMS 

and  fashionable  people;  but  the  price  of  it  in  those  early 
days  of  Charles  II  —  sixty  shillings  a  pound  —  put  it 
out  of  the  reach  of  all  except  the  opulent  few.  Potatoes 
were  not  utilized  for  the  table  until  more  than  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  after  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims.  Clear 
sparkling  water,  and  beer  when  obtainable,  were  the  table 
beverages.  Cider  and  wine  came  later.  Beef,  veal,  and  mut- 
ton were  for  a  long  while  strangers  to  the  frugal  boards  of 
the  colonists.  Swine  have  incidental  mention  in  the  records 
at  an  early  date;  for  they  were  disturbers  of  the  peace 
between  neighbors  as  well  as  contributors  to  lean  larders. 
Cattle  were  a  later  importation. 


In  1624?,  the  Charity  brought  over  the  returning  Wins- 
low,  and  "  a  bull  and  three  heifers  "  which  he  had  purchased 
for  the  colony.  "  Two  were  black,  and  the 
Cattle  third  was  white-backed."     That  small  herd  of 

brought  four  was  «  the  fjrst,  beginning  of  any  cattle  in 

to  the  the  land,"  and  it  became  the  cattle  on  a  thou- 

colony  sand  hills.     To  the  poor  wives  and  mothers 

whose  resources  for  appetizing  meals  had  been 
so  slender  the  sight  of  these  docile  and  useful  creatures  must 
have  brought  forth  cheer  and  a  new  courage.  These  are 
the  "  some  cattle  "  which  Captain  John  Smith  referred  to  in 
a  letter  written  in  England  later  in  the  same  year  of  1624, 
in  which  he  said  that  Plymouth  contained  "  about  a  hundred 
and  eighty  people,  who  had  thirty -two  dwelling  houses, 
some  cattle  and  goats,  with  much  swine  and  poultry." 
Early  in  the  following  year,  1625,  the  Jacob  brought  over 
five  young  cattle  —  four  of  them  on  consignment  to  Wins- 
low  and  Allerton,  and  one  a  gift  from  Shirley  to  the  poor. 

In  the  division  of  the  cattle,  to  which  reference  is  to  be 
made  in  the  next  paragraph,  the  Arvne  is  credited  with 
having  brought  over  some  of  the  stock  which  the  colony 
then  owned.  Among  these  animals  were  "  the  great  black 
cow,  .  .  .  the  great  white-back  cow,"  and  "  the  lesser  of 
the  black  cows." 


THE    PILGRIMS  255 

The  claim  is  made  by  Dr.  Ames  that  the  cattle  referred  to 
as  having  been  brought  by  the  Anne  must  have  been  brought 
over  in  1623.  In  that  case  those  brought  in  the  Charity 
could  not  have  been  the  first  to  be  received  by  the  colony. 
It  is  very  certain  that  there  were  neither  kine,  horses,  nor 
sheep  in  the  Mayflower.  So  all  the  cattle  the  colony  owned 
came  later.  Now  the  Anne  could  not  have  brought 
cattle  on  the  trip  in  1623;  for  Bradford  says  explicitly 
that  those  brought  in  the  Charity  a  year  afterwards  were 
"  the  first  beginning  of  any  cattle  of  that  kind  in  the  land." 
Besides,  had  the  Anne  had  cattle  on  board  when  she  reached 
Plymouth,  and  found  the  colony  in  almost  a  starving  con- 
dition, it  would  have  filled  all  their  hearts  with  inexpressible 
joy.  Instead,  there  was  dismay  because  no  help  in  the  way 
of  food  had  been  brought  to  them,  and  the  demands  upon 
them  had  been  greatly  increased.  In  making  the  entries 
relating  to  the  division  of  cattle  in  1627,  a  mistake  had 
been  made,  and  the  cattle  had  been  attributed  to  the  wrong 
6hip.  That  explains  it ;  for  in  a  matter  of  this  importance 
Bradford  could  not  have  been  misinformed. 

On  January  1,  1627,  the  number  of  cattle  had  risen  to 
fifteen.     Twelve  of  these  were  cows.     At  that  time  there 

were  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  persons  in  the 
Division  of  settlement,  who,  because  they  were  "  pur- 
cattle  chasers,"  a  body  to  be  explained  later,  or  in 

virtue  of  their  relations  to  the  "  purchasers," 
were  entitled  to  share  in  the  common  property  of  the 
colony.  These  were  arranged  in  groups,  according  to 
their  individual  preferences,  of  thirteen  each.  To  each  of 
these  twelve  groups  of  thirteen  one  cow  was  assigned  by 
lot.  But  this  arrangement  was  to  hold  good  for  only  ten 
years.  The  cattle  still  belonged  to  the  colony  as  a  whole. 
At  the  end  of  ten  years  each  cow,  if  living,  with  one-half 
of  the  increase,  if  any,  was  to  be  given  back  to  the  Com- 
pany. The  bulls  were  evidently  turned  over  to  the  groups 
best  able  to  take  care  of  them.  To  all  except  —  for  some 
reason  not  stated  —  the  group  of  which  John  Howland 
was  the  head,  a  pair  of  she-goats  was  added  to  the  cow. 
The  swine  were  distributed  in  the  same  systematic  way.  As 
to  the  cows  a  dozen  of  them  distributed  among  a  hundred 


256  THE    PILGRIMS 

and  seventy-five  or  eighty  people  —  for  there  were  thirty 
or  forty  then  in  the  colony  who  had  no  right  to  participate 
in  the  allotment  of  the  common  possessions,  but  who  had 
mouths  to  be  fed,  would  not  seem  to  promise  an  oversupply 
of  dairy  products. 

But  even  one  was  better  than  nothing,  for  good  milkers 
were  an  expensive  luxury.     At  about  the  time  this  division 

was  made  it  is  estimated  that  a  good  cow  was 
Price  of  worth  the  equivalent  of  two  hundred  dollars  of 

cows  our  money.     Calves  would  be  carefully  raised, 

and  cows  would  not  be  fattened  for  slaughter 
so  long  as  they  gave  reasonable  promise  of  yielding  a  good 
quantity  of  milk.  Among  the  assets  of  Standish  when  he 
died  were  two  pairs  of  oxen  and  ten  cows  and  calves.  He 
knew  not  only  how  to  intimidate  Indians,  but  how  to  make 
farming  profitable.  For  the  thrifty  captain,  inside  of  a 
year  after  the  "  red  cow  "  had  been  assigned  to  him  and  his 
group,  bought  out  the  shares  of  his  associates  in  the  ten- 
year  ownership  and  had  her  all  to  himself.  It  is  through 
this  transaction  that  we  get  our  information  concerning 
the  value  of  a  cow  at  that  time  and  place. 

Cows,  if  not  thought  to  be  "  sacred,"  were  considered 
fit  objects  to  devote  to  sacred  uses.  In  1633,  Dr.  Fuller 
declared  in  his  will :  "  I  give  to  the  Church  of  God  at 
Plymouth  the  first  cow-calf  that  my  brown  cow  shall  have." 
Slices  of  ripe  roast  beef,  now  such  a  necessity  to  every 
robust  Englishman,  and  kidney-cuts  of  veal  were  not  for 
these  struggling  colonists.  Day,  the  Harvard  printer, 
to  whom  the  world  is  indebted  for  the  "  Bay  Psalm-book," 
thought  it  a  high  commendation  of  the  young  man  who  was 
to  marry  his  daughter  that  he  had  "  cattle  all  ready  "  for 
his  use. 

Horses  were  owned  in  Salem  as  early  as  1629.  In  1635 
the  James  brought  a  consignment  of  horses  to  Boston.     In 

the  same  year  Dutch  ships  brought  horses  from 
Horses  Holland  to  the  Boston  market.    As  to  the  time 

when  horses  were  introduced  into  Plymouth 
there  is  uncertainty.  Thatcher  says  that  "  the  first 
notice  of  horses  on  record  is  1644,  when  a  mare,  belonging 
to  the  estate  of  Stephen  Hopkins,  was  appraised  at  six 


THE    PILGRIMS  257 

pounds  sterling."  This  implies,  of  course,  that  horses 
were  there  before  that  date.  In  speaking  of  the  brisk  trade 
which  sprang  up  between  the  Bay  and  Plymouth  after  the 
great  sickness  in  Boston  in  1631,  Goodwin  says :  "  Every- 
thing that  Plymouth  had  to  sell  was  readily  taken,  espe- 
cially in  exchange  for  horses  and  neat  cattle."  This  writer 
doubtless  had  good  authority  for  what  his  statement  sug- 
gests. Governor  Bradford  is  said  to  have  owned  a  "  mare," 
which  was  used  by  the  escort  who  attended  Governor 
Winthrop  and  his  party  for  some  distance  as  they  returned 
from  their  visit  to  Plymouth  in  1632.  Howland  had  a 
horse  in  1656.  This  same  year,  when  he  died,  Standish 
owned  five  "  horses  and  colts."  One  catches  these  glimpses 
of  horses,  as  well  as  oxen,  in  the  colony  with  special  satis- 
faction; for  it  means  the  lightening  of  so  many  burdens 
which  must  have  been  heavy  in  the  earlier  years,  and  a 
marked  increase  in  the  facilities  for  making  a  living. 

The  first  hint  of  sheep  in  the  colony  is  that  given  in  the 
transaction  in  which  Standish  acquired  full  possession  of 

the  use  of  the  cow  assigned  to  him  and  his 
Sheep  group.      "  Two    ewe    lambs  "    were    given    by 

Standish  in  exchange  for  one  share  he  bought. 
Lambs  like  calves  were  considered  appropriate  gifts  to 
the  churches.  This  was  William  Wright's  token  of  regard 
for  the  little  body  of  disciples  in  the  wilderness  —  "a  ewe 
lamb."  For  some  reason  the  flocks  did  not  multiply  so 
fast  as  the  herds.  As  late  as  1633  the  colony  found  it 
necessary  to  forbid  the  exportation  of  sheep.  Wolves  were 
plenty  and  troublesome,  and  it  may  have  been  difficult  to 
protect  the  sheep  against  their  ravages. 

Goats  were  more  hardy  and  an  earlier  importation  than 
sheep.     It  was  easy,  too,  to  increase  the  stock  of  goats. 

Recall  John  Smith's  statement,  "  some  cattle 
Goats  an(j  goats."     On  the  breaking  up,  in  1626,  of 

"  a  plantation  which  was  at  Monhegan  "  —  off 
the  coast  of  Maine  —  "  and  belonged  to  some  merchants  at 
Plymouth,"  in  England,  a  flock  of  goats  was  secured  for  the 
colony. 

While  there  was   this   shortage,  however,   in  beef   and 
mutton  and  dairy  products,  the  Pilgrims,  after  the  first 

17 


258  THE    PILGRIMS 

sharp  pinch  was  over,  had  fish  in  plenty,  and  lobsters  and 
clams,  and  wild  game,  deer  and  turkeys.     They  also  had 

field  strawberries  in  abundance,  and  plums  and 
Sea-food,  huckleberries  in  their  season.  Orchards  were 
game,  fowl,  planted  early.  Inside  of  twenty  years  Dux- 
and  fruits      bury  had  a  large  number  of  thrifty  apple-trees. 

Wheat  yielded  a  good  crop  for  more  than  forty 
years  after  the  landing  on  Plymouth  Rock ;  but  at  length 
a  blight  fell  upon  it,  and  the  use  of  this  important  cereal 
had  to  be  abandoned  for  a  while. 

Indian  corn,  rye,  and  beans  became  the  staples  of  living. 
Baked  beans  were  domesticated  at  Plymouth  before  they 

were  in  Boston.  Pork  was  in  common  use. 
Staples  of  \yith  fish,  fresh  and  salted  and  smoked,  with 
living  venison  and  fowl,  with  beans,  green  and  dried, 

with  clams  from  the  sands,  with  vegetables  like 
squash  and  turnip  and  onion  from  field  and  garden,  with 
milk  and  butter  and  cheese  from  their  own  increasing  herds, 
and  with  fruits  in  considerable  variety  in  their  season,  and 
with  everything  in  the  way  of  supplies  on  the  up-grade, 
the  Pilgrims  were  in  no  danger  of  starving.  They  did  not 
starve. 


XI 

On  the  contrary,  it  is  remarkable  how  healthy  they  were, 
and  to  what  a  good  old  age  those  who  survived  the  severe 
ordeal  of  the  first  years  actually  lived.  Brad- 
Health  and  forcj  was  sixty-seven  when  he  went  hence, 
long  life  Standish  was  seventy-two.  Brewster  was  sev- 
enty-eight. Alice  Southworth  Bradford  was 
nearly  eighty.  Francis  Cook  was  rising  eighty.  After 
sixty  years  of  the  kind  of  life  they  had  to  live  in  the  colony, 
John  Alden,  Priscilla  Mullins  Alden,  Mrs.  Susana  White 
Winslow,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Tilley  Howland,  George  Soule, 
Giles  Hopkins,  John  Cook,  Resolved  White,  Henry  Samp- 
son, Samuel  Fuller,  Samuel  Eaton,  and  Mrs.  Mary  Allerton 
Cushman,  were  still  living.  Cook  and  White  lingered  for 
another  decade  and  more.     Mary  Allerton  Cushman,  the 


THE    PILGRIMS  259 

last  of  the  sacred  fellowship  to  go,  did  not  pass  to  her 
reward  until  1699. 

The  burial  of  this  mother  in  Israel  must  have  been  a 
solemn  and  memorable  occasion.  When  her  venerable  hus- 
band, Thomas  Cushman,  the  successor  of  Brewster  in  the 
eldership,  in  1691  went  hence  to  the  Great  Beyond,  a  fast 
day  was  observed  by  the  Plymouth  church.  The  widow 
was  held  in  tender  regard  and  remembered  in  her  needs. 
When  her  time  came  to  join  her  husband  in  the  unseen 
world,  it  is  easy  to  imagine  the  moisture  in  the  eyes  and  the 
quiver  on  the  lips  of  the  company  who  gathered  about  her 
open  grave.  It  is  fit  that  a  granite  obelisk  has  been  erected 
on  Burial  Hill  to  mark  the  spot  where  all  that  is  mortal  of 
this  immortal  pair  now  rests. 


XIII 
PAYING    THEIR    DEBTS 


The  Company  sold  to  the  Colony  all  their  shares,  stocks,  merchandise, 
lands  and  chattels,  in  consideration  of  Eighteen  Hundred  Pounds,  to  be  paid 
at  the  Royal  Exchange  in  London,  every  Michaelmas,  in  nine  annual  and 
equal  payments,  the  first  of  which  was  to  be  made  in  1628.  The  agreement 
was  approved.  The  settlers  were  distrustful  of  their  ability  to  provide  for 
the  annual  payments,  and  their  own  wants.  Yet  despair  formed  no  part  of 
their  character,  they  always  lived  in  hope  and  trusted  to  God. 

Francis  Baylies. 

Finally,  in  March,  1646,  when  it  had  stood  over  a  quarter  of  a  Century, 
the  Pilgrim  Republic  for  the  first  time  enjoyed  the  luxury  of  owing  no  man 
anything.  Its  debts  had  been  inflated,  its  funds  embezzled,  its  trade  de- 
frauded, and  its  confidence  betrayed :  but  it  had  borne  every  burden  without 
shrinking,  and  had  preferred  to  endure  fraud  and  robbery  rather  than  risk 
any  sacrifice  of  honor.  Its  leaders  took  care  that  every  chance  of  wrong 
should  fall  on  themselves  rather  than  on  the  public  creditors  who  had  treated 
them  unjustly.    Repudiation  is  not  a  plant  of  Old  Colony  growth. 

John  A.  Goodwin. 


XIII 
PAYING    THEIR    DEBTS 

IN  addition  to  winning  a  living  from  soil  and  sea,  and 
from  the  timber  and  game  of  the  forests,  the  Pilgrims 
were  to  pay  their  debts,  and  at  the  earliest  practicable 
moment  work  free  from  the  perplexing  entanglements  and 
heavy  burdens  in  which  they  were  involved  by  the  unequal 
agreement  with  the  Merchant  Adventurers. 

Debt  is  a  serious  handicap  to  anybody.  Especially  is 
this  so  when  one  has  nothing  in  the  way  of  assets  to  meet 
his  indebtedness.  The  merchant  who  borrows  money  to 
buy  goods  has  on  his  shelves  the  equivalent  of  what  he 
owes ;  but  the  man  who  owes  and  has  nothing  with  which 
to  pay,  even  under  the  most  propitious  circumstances,  has 
a  heavy  and  discouraging  load  to  carry.  These  colonists 
had  faith  and  pluck,  willing  hands  and  resolute  purpose, 
and  the  habits  of  industry,  economy,  and  self-denial,  but 
they  could  hardly  have  been  in  a  less  favorable  condition 
for  making  money  than  they  were  during  the  first  years 
of  their  settlement  at  Plymouth.  Straitened  in  all  sorts 
of  material  resources,  without  experience  of  the  country 
and  the  ways  of  getting  on  in  it,  sick,  hungry,  perplexed, 
and  with  not  a  few  of  their  wise  and  strong  ones  gone 
hence,  one  cannot  help  feeling  that  they  did  well  to  keep 
the  breath  of  life  in  their  bodies  and  their  organization 
intact.  It  was  inevitable  that  paying  debts  would  prove 
to  be  a  long  and  tedious  task. 


Technically,    at   the   outset,   these   obligations    of   the 
colonists  to  the  Adventurers  were  not  debts ;  but  in  morals 


264  THE    PILGRIMS 

they  were ;  and  before  the  business  was  definitely  concluded 
they  became  so  by  mutual  agreement  in  form.  The  Pil- 
grims might  well  hQ,ve  put  their  own  losses  and 
Why  the  sufferings  over  against  the  unprofitable  out- 
Pilgrims  jays  made  by  the  Adventurers;  but,  as  we 
were  in  shall  see,  they  refused  to  do  this,  and  volun- 

debt  tarily  bound  themselves  to  pay  over  a  stipu- 

lated and,  to  them,  large  sum  to  satisfy  the 
claims  of  those  who  had  invested  their  money  in  the 
enterprise. 

Recall  the  fact  that  the  colonists  and  the  Merchant 
Adventurers  constituted  a  joint-stock  company.  Every 
planter  of  sixteen  years  of  age  and  upwards  was  rated  at 
one  share.  A  planter  putting  in  ten  pounds  of  money  or 
provisions  was  entitled  to  an  additional  share.  A  planter 
carrying  wife  and  children,  or  servants,  received  a  single 
share  for  each  person  of  sixteen  or  upwards ;  or  for  chil- 
dren or  servants  between  the  ages  of  ten  and  sixteen  a 
share  for  two.  The  Adventurers,  of  course,  obtained  shares 
only  by  investing  their  money  in  the  enterprise.  It  was 
this  money  put  in  by  the  Adventurers,  and  which  it  was 
expected  would  yield  gratifying  returns  at  the  end  of  seven 
years  when  the  joint  property  was  to  be  divided  and  the 
profits  distributed,  that  created  the  financial  obligations  in 
which  the  colonists  were  involved. 


II 

In  no  one  of  the  authorities  consulted  are  we  told  just 
how  many  shares  of  the  stock  the  Adventurers  took.     Nor 

is  it  clear  how  much  the  returns  actually  made 
Exact  during  the  period  in  which  the  original  con- 

amount  of  tract  was  in  operation  netted  them.  While 
indebted-  some  of  the  consignments  were  intercepted,  and 
ness  dim-  did  not  help  the  Adventurers  at  all,  though 
cult  to  they  told  against  the  resources  of  the  planters 

ascertain        just  the   same,   there   were   other   remittances 

made  which  did  reach  them;  but  how  much 
these  successful  remittances  summed  up  is  not  in  evidence  in 
any  of  the  accessible  records.    We  know,  however,  that  the 


THE    PILGRIMS  265 

amount  which  Allerton  agreed  to  pay  the  Adventurers  for 
their  entire  interest  in  the  colony,  when  as  agent  of  the 
planters  in  1627  he  bought  them  out,  was  eighteen  hundred 
pounds.  This  was  nearly  at  the  end  of  the  seven  years  for 
which  the  partnership  was  to  run,  and  was  in  addition  to 
all  that  had  been  advanced  before. 

Still  the  eighteen  hundred  pounds  was  not  the  full  meas- 
ure of  the  burden  which  the  planters  had  to  assume.  Dur- 
ing those  years  of  struggle  they  had  been  obliged  from  time 
to  time  to  borrow  quite  large  sums  at  extortionate  rates. 
Standish,  for  instance,  a  year  or  so  before  this  final  agree- 
ment with  the  Adventurers,  made  a  loan  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  at  fifty  per  cent  interest.  At  a  later  date, 
Allerton  secured  two  hundred  pounds  at  thirty  per  cent. 
The  notes  of  the  Pilgrims  were  out  for  other  sums.  Money 
was  necessary,  even  though  it  had  to  be  obtained  on  these 
appallingly  high  terms,  to  meet  expenses  and  carry  on 
trade.  It  is  impossible  to  say  just  what  was  the  total 
indebtedness  of  the  colonists  at  the  end  of  their  seven  years 
of  toil  and  hardship;  but  it  was  at  least  six  hundred 
pounds  in  addition  to  the  eighteen  hundred  pounds  which 
were  to  be  paid  the  Merchant  Adventurers.  This  was 
certainly  a  formidable  challenge  to  courage  as  well  as  to 
industry  and  financial  skill. 

But  let  us  go  back  and  look  at  this  matter  of  debt- 
paying  somewhat  more  in  detail. 


Ill 

The  first  note  of  irritation  over  delay  in  making  returns 
came,  as  might  have  been  anticipated,  from  Weston  and 

those  of  his  ilk  among  the  Adventurers.  The 
First  com-  complaint,  voiced  in  letters,  was  that  the  May- 
plaints  at  flower,  when  she  made  her  home  voyage  after 
delay  in  re-  ^he  winter  at  Plymouth,  bore  no  products  for 
mittancea       the   market.      The   letters   were  intrusted   to 

Cushman,  who  had  come  over  on  the  Fortune 
to  secure  the  signatures  of  the  colonists  to  the  altered  arti- 
cles of  agreement  which  they  had  stoutly  refused  to  sign 


266  THE    PILGRIMS 

at  Southampton.  This  vessel,  it  will  be  remembered, 
arrived  at  Plymouth  in  the  late  autumn  after  the  first  sum- 
mer. But  those  in  possession  of  the  facts  of  the  story,  as 
these  facts  have  now  been  given,  and  who  also  know  how 
negligent  and  niggardly  these  London  correspondents 
were  in  meeting  their  share  of  the  common  obligations,  and 
sending  over  suitable  goods  with  which  to  do  business,  will 
readily  understand  how  unreasonable  it  was  to  expect  these 
crippled  and  struggling  pioneers  to  do  more  than  they  did. 
It  was  not  alone  unreasonable;  it  was  heartless.  When 
these  letters  were  written,  the  Adventurers,  one  and  all  of 
them,  knew  what  an  awful  affliction  had  fallen  upon  the 
colonists,  and  through  what  sorest  straits  they  had  been 
called  to  pass.  It  would  be  unfair  to  say  that  Shylock, 
insisting  on  his  pound  of  flesh,  was  more  humane  than  they ; 
but  it  is  not  unfair  to  say  that  the  demands  of  some  of 
these  men  suggest  Shylock.  The  colonists  were  weak  and 
smitten.  They  had  neither  time  nor  strength  nor  capital 
to  make  gains.  What  they  were  entitled  to  was  not 
blame,  harsh  and  cruel,  but  tenderest  sympathy  and  en- 
couragement. They  should  have  been  promptly  and  gener- 
ously helped. 

IV 

However,  before  the  close  of  their  first  twelvemonth  in 
the  new  country,  the  Pilgrims  managed  to  get  together 

merchandise  for  the  home  market  to  the  value 
The  first  0f  something  like  five  hundred  pounds.  This 
remittance  consisted  of  "  good  clapboard,"  or  staves  for 
and  what  making  beer  barrels  and  kegs,  "  and  two 
came  of  it       hogsheads    of   beaver    and    otter    skins."      A 

hogshead  held  a  little  less  than  two  hundred 
beaver  skins.  An  average  skin  weighed  about  a  pound  and 
a  half.  Each  pound  of  beaver  was  worth  a  pound  sterling 
in  the  market.  How  many  of  the  pelts  in  these  two  hogs- 
heads were  beaver  we  are  not  informed ;  but,  as  just  stated, 
the  value  of  the  whole  cargo  was  near  to  five  hundred 
pounds.  In  the  circumstances  this  was  extraordinary. 
These  people  were  not  prepared  for  trade  with  the  Indians ; 


THE    PILGRIMS  267 

but  with  the  few  trifling  articles  which  they  had  brought 
with  them,  they  were  enabled  to  purchase  this  amount  of 
goods  to  be  sent  back.  The  Fortune,  on  hef^  return  voyage, 
took  these  commodities  aboard;  and  it  looked  as  if  a  fair 
start  had  been  made  towards  satisfying  the  expectations 
of  the  London  partners  and  helping  the  colonists  to  a  bet- 
ter business  standing  in  England.  Alas  for  all  con- 
cerned !  These  bright  hopes  were  destined  to  a  bitter  dash- 
ing. In  those  days  ships  on  the  high  seas  were  subject  to 
other  perils  than  storms  and  rocks  and  shoals.  The  strong 
preyed  upon  the  weak;  and  almost  anything  was  made  a 
pretext  for  justifying  rapacity  and  greed.  When  but  a 
short  distance  out  from  the  English  harbor,  the  Fortune 
was  captured  by  a  French  war-ship  and  her  cargo  was  con- 
fiscated by  the  French  authorities.  Thus  ended  the  first 
attempt  to  ease  financial  burdens  and  hush  unreasonable 
complaints. 


Li  the  autumn  of  1623,  the  Anne,  which  brought  an 
increase  to  the  colony  of  about  sixty  persons,  besides  thirty 

or  forty  others  who  had  come  on  their  own 
A  second  individual  account,  seems  to  have  taken  back 
remittance     a  consignment  of  the  usual  "  clapboard,"  and 

likewise  "all  the  beaver  and  other  furs  they 
had :  "  but  there  is  only  incidental  mention  made  of  the 
value  of  this  cargo ;  nor  are  we  told  of  the  uses  to  which 
the  money  obtained  from  it  was  put.  Most  likely  it  did  not 
do  much  more  than  meet  expenses,  or  possibly  aid  in  wip- 
ing out  some  side  indebtedness. 


VI 

It  was  some  time  before  the  colonists  were  in  condition 
to  make  further  returns  of  value.  But  in  1625  a  large 
ship,  with  a  cargo  of  considerable  worth,  left  Plymouth 
for  London.  Through  fear  of  French  privateers,  for  there 
was  then  "  a  bruit  of  war  "  between  France  and  England, 


268  THE    PILGRIMS 

her  captain  took  her  into  an  English  port;  and  through 
the  delay  thus  occasioned  the  chance  to  sell  to  advantage 

what  she  had  brought  over  was  lost.  Along 
Other  futile  with  this  larger  vessel,  and  in  her  tow  in  fact, 
attempts  the  Little  James  —  a  boat  which  seems  to 
to  make  have  been  attended  with  ill  luck  from  the 
returns  first  —  set  sail  wfth  a  freight  of  fish  and  fur. 

She  was  taken  by  the  Turks.  In  this  way  an- 
other sturdy  effort  to  better  the  financial  situation  came 
to  naught. 

VII 

The  simple  fact  is  it  was  a  struggle  for  existence.     At 
the  end  of  six  or  seven  years  no  real  headway  had  been 
made  in  increasing  the  commercial  value  of  the 
A  new  property  held  by  the  colonists  and  Merchant 

financial  Adventurers  in  common,  or  in  furnishing  sat- 
basis  isfactory  returns  to  the  London  stockholders 

necessary  for  their  investment  in  the  undertaking.  It 
became  more  and  more  evident  that  for  the 
good  of  all  who  were  interested  or  in  any  way  involved  in 
the  movement,  the  affairs  of  the  Company  must  be  put  on 
another  basis. 

Winslow  returned  to  England  on  the  Anne,    He  did  not 
go  for  the  specific  purpose  of  reorganizing  the  Company, 
but  "  to  inform  of  all  things,  and  procure  such 
Winslow's      things  as  were  thought  needful  for  their  pres- 
visit  to  ent  condition."     In  their  repeated  conferences 

England  many  things  passed,  no  doubt,  between  Wins- 
low,  who  was  a  natural-born  diplomatist,  and 
the  Merchants,  fitted  to  pave  the  way  for  a  readjustment 
when  the  right  time  should  come.  That  this  subject  was 
in  the  minds  of  the  Adventurers,  and  was  freely  and  even 
bitterly  discussed  at  times,  is  evident  from  letters  sent  over 
to  the  colonists  at  this  particular  period.  Still  the  main 
object  of  Winslow's  visit  was  to  give  information,  hush 
discontent  and  faction  if  possible,  impart  courage  and 
secure  supplies.  We  know  how  well  he  succeeded  in  the  lat- 
ter of  these  aims. 


THE    PILGRIMS  269 

Two  years  subsequent  to  the  date  of  Winslow's  visit  to 
England,  Standish  was  sent  over  with  instructions  to  mend 

matters,  if  he  could,  by  some  sort  of  recon- 
Standish  struction  of  the  articles  of  agreement.  He  was 
goes  over       to  pleacl  with  the  Company  for  easier  terms  in 

the  sale  of  goods  to  them,  and  for  goods  more 
suitable  to  the  kind  of  trade  they  had  to  carry  on  with  the 
Indians.  Beyond  this  he  was  to. plead  with  the  Council  for 
New  England  for  "  favor  and  help."  He  was  to  secure 
their  aid  in  bringing  such  of  the  Adventurers  as  had  for- 
saken and  deserted  them  back  to  a  saner  mind,  and  not  to 
hold  the  colonists  to  the  terms  of  the  agreement  while  they 
themselves  disregarded  them.  In  other  words,  he  was  to 
urge  "  that  they  might  either  stand  to  their  former  cove- 
nants, or  else  come  to  some  fair  end  by  division  or  com- 
position." Owing  to  the  political  confusion  which  marked 
that  great  revolutionary  hour,  and  the  panic  and  devas- 
tation caused  by  the  plague  then  prevailing,  and  the  seri- 
ous financial  losses  which  many  of  the  friends  of  the  colony 
had  suffered,  he  could  do  little  more  than  borrow,  as  we 
have  seen,  a  small  sum  of  money  at  an  exorbitant  rate  of 
interest.  But  he  had  set  the  idea  of  reorganization  to  fer- 
menting in  the  minds  of  the  parties  concerned.  In  doing 
this  he  "  prepared  a  good  way  for  the  composition  that  was 
afterwards  made."  It  is  evident  that  the  brave  captain 
was  something  more  than  a  mere  fighter. 

The  next  year  Allerton  was  commissioned  by  the  col- 
onists to  cross   the  ocean  and  follow  up   the  promising 

initiative  made  by  Standish  in  readjusting 
Allerton  the  articles  of  agreement  under  which  they  and 
sent  to  the  Adventurers  were  conducting  their  affairs, 

push  His  directions  were  "  to  make  a  composition 

negotia-         with  the  Adventurers  upon  as  good  terms  as  he 
tions  could."     Nothing,  however,  was  to  be  settled 

finally  until  the  whole  matter  had  been  referred 
to  the  people  at  Plymouth.  They  had  been  caught  once,  so 
they  were  prompt  to  remember,  by  an  unwarranted  assump- 
tion of  authority  on  the  part  of  an  agent,  and  once  was 
enough.  Having  wintered  in  England,  "  at  the  usual  sea- 
son of  the  coming  of  ships  Mr.  Allerton  returned."     He 


270  THE    PILGRIMS 

was  fortunate,  as  has  been  noted,  in  being  able  to  borrow 
money  at  a  less  rate  of  interest  than  some  of  the  previous 
agents  of  the  colony  had  been  able  to  do,  and  he  brought 
with  him  "  some  useful  goods." 

But  his  more  important  achievement  was  in  the  line  of 
reorganization.  "  By  the  help  of  sundry  of  their  faithful 
friends,"  and  "  with  much  ado  and  no  small  trouble,  he  had 
made  a  composition  with  the  Adventurers."  A  copy  of 
this  agreement,  "  drawn  by  the  best  counsel  of  the  law 
they  could  get,  to  make  it  firm,"  he  had  brought  with  him. 
Forty-two  of  the  Adventurers  affixed  their  names  to  this 
document  in  their  own  behalf,  and  Allerton  subscribed  for 
the  colonists.  If  the  Plymouth  people  assented  to  the 
terms  thus  mutually  agreed  upon  and  stated  in  the  paper, 
the  bargain  was  to  become  binding,  and  the  whole  enter- 
prise was  to  stand  on  another  and  more  helpful  basis. 


vm 

The  sum  and  substance  of  the  agreement  was  that  the 
merchants  were  to  abandon  all  claims  and  relinquish  all 

right  and  title  to  the  property  of  the  colony 
The  new  on  the  payment  to  them  by  the  colonists  of 
agreement     eighteen    hundred    pounds.       The    payments 

were  to  be  made  in  annual  instalments,  on  a 
stipulated  day,  of  two  hundred  pounds.  Bradford  shall 
tell  the  rest  of  the  story :  "  This  agreement  was  very  well 
liked  of,  and  approved  by  all  the  plantation,  and  consented 
unto ;  though  they  knew  not  well  how  to  raise  the  payment, 
and  discharge  their  other  engagements,  and  supply  the 
yearly  wants  of  the  plantation,  seeing  they  were  forced  for 
their  necessities  to  take  up  money  or  goods  at  so  high 
interest.  Yet  they  undertook  it,  and  seven  or  eight  of  the 
chief  of  the  place  became  jointly  bound  for  the  payment  of 
this  eighteen  hundred  founds  in  behalf  of  the  rest,  at  the 
several  days.  In  which  they  ran  a  great  adventure,  as 
their  present  state  stood,  having  many  other  heavy  burdens 
already  upon  them,  and  all  things  in  an  uncertain  con- 
dition among  them.     So  the  next  return  it  was  absolutely 


THE    PILGRIMS  271 

confirmed  on  both  sides,  and  the  bargain  fairly  engrossed 
in  parchment  and  in  many  things  put  into  better  form,  by 
the  advice  of  the  learnedest  counsel  they  could  get,  .  .  . 
and  was  concluded  under  their  hands  and  seals." 


IX 

This  put  a  better  face  on  affairs.  It  also  imposed  very 
formidable  obligations.  In  the  passage  just  quoted  Brad- 
ford speaks  of  "  other  engagements,"  and 
New  ar-  «  many  other  heavy  burdens."     These  "  other 

rangement  engagements  "  and  "  heavy  burdens  "  were  in 
inspires  part  debts,  such  as  have  been  indicated  already, 

hope  which  had  been  incurred  from  time  to  time  for 

money  borrowed  with  which  to  obtain  supplies 
or  trading  goods.  These  sums  amounted  to  a  round  six 
hundred  pounds.  The  combined  obligations  bulked  large, 
and  surely  would  have  staggered  the  colonists  had  they 
not  been  of  the  dauntless  sort.  But  they  bent  their  necks 
to  the  yoke,  and  the  load  moved.  Seven  or  eight  of  their 
number,  so  Bradford  tells  us  in  the  paragraph  just  quoted, 
became  responsible  for  the  payments  stipulated  in  the  bar- 
gain. Here  are  the  names  of  the  eight  who  became  re- 
sponsible for  the  whole  colony :  Bradford,  Winslow,  Brew- 
ster, Allerton,  Standish,  Howland,  Alden,  Prence.  It  was 
a  meritorious  service  which  they  rendered.  For  an  act 
involving  so  much  public  spirit  and  such  downright  cour- 
age as  was  exhibited  by  them  in  assuming  responsibility 
for  the  payment  of  so  large  a  sum,  in  so  short  a  time, 
with  such  slender  resources,  the  men  who  bore  these  names 
deserve  in  every  account  of  the  transaction  the  honor  of 
special  mention. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  all  but  one  of  those  named  fall 
into  the  list  of  those  "  which  came  first  over  in  the  May- 
flower" They  were  of  the  original  Pilgrim  Company. 
Thomas  Prence  came  in  the  Fortune,  but  he  had  the  quali- 
ties which  speedily  advanced  him  to  the  rank  of  the  leaders. 
In  the  list,  however,  which  Prince  gives  and  which  counts 
up,  not  seven  or  eight,  but  nine,  the  names  of  Fuller  and 


272  THE    PILGRIMS 

Jenny  are  substituted  for  Prence.  Jenny  came  over  in  the 
Anne  or  Little  James,  and  was  a  "  godly,  though  otherwise, 
a  plain  man;  yet  singular  for  publickness  of  spirit,  set- 
ting himself  to  seek  and  promote  the  common  good  of  the 
plantation."  But  Fuller  was  a  Mayflower  man  and,  like 
his  fellows  in  the  ship,  was  pluck  to  the  last. 

The  changed  relation  of  the  colony  to  the 
Financial  Adventurers  called  for  a  readjustment  of 
and  other  things  in  the  colony  itself.  The  men  who 
readjust-  Yi&d  become  indorsers  for  the  colony  were 
ments  in  justly  entitled  to  all  the  security  which  could 
the  colony  be  given  them.  The  colony  was  under  moral 
obligation  the  most  binding  to  put  itself  in  the 
best  shape  possible  to  furnish  the  security.  To  effect  a 
satisfactory  reorganization  three  steps  were  taken. 


The  first  was  a  step  in  the  interest  of  consolidation  and 
unity.      It  will  be   remembered  that  the  Anne,  in   1623, 

brought  to  Plymouth,  not  only  an  accession 
Consolida-  0f  sixty  members  to  the  colony  proper,  but 
tion  and  thirty  or  forty  persons,  who  wished  to  live 
unity  in   the  midst   of  the   colony,   but   not   to   be 

identified  with  it  further  than  conforming  to 
the  general  regulations.  They  "  did  not  belong  to  the 
general  body,  but  came  on  their  particular  "  —  that  is, 
on  their  individual  and  independent  account  — "  and 
were  to  have  lands  assigned  them,  and  be  for  themselves, 
yet  to  be  subject  to  the  general  government,  which  caused 
some  difference  and  disturbance  amongst  them."  It  was 
not  the  colonists,  but  the  Adventurers,  who  had  brought 
this  about.  Besides  these,  who  were  of  »them  and  yet 
not  of  them,  the  colonists  "  from  the  first "  had  "  some 
untoward  persons  mixed  amongst  them,"  and  later  still 
others  who  had  no  fellowship  with  their  spirit  and  pur- 
pose had  been  inconsiderately  thrust  upon  them.  Some  of 
the  worst  of  these  were  sent  back ;  others  remained.  The 
grave  question  was  what  to  do  with  these  insiders  who  were 
yet  outsiders.    At  this  stage  of  the  business  harmony  was 


THE    PILGRIMS  273 

of  all  consequence.  So  the  governor  and  his  trusted  ad- 
visers, after  general  conference  and  due  deliberation,  wisely 
concluded  to  take  into  the  colony  all  these  outsiders  who 
were  either  heads  of  families,  or  single  young  men  who  had 
ability  and  character  and  gave  promise  of  being  helpful 
to  the  struggling  commonwealth.  Thus  at  a  single  stroke 
unity  was  secured,  and  the  prospect  of  the  hearty  co- 
working  of  all  toward  the  end  of  freedom  from  debt  which 
was  so  much  a  burden  on  every  heart. 

The  second  step  consisted  in  turning  over  to  these  men 
who  had  become  personally  responsible  for  the  payment  of 

the  indebtedness  of  the  colony,  a  monopoly  of 
Monopoly  the  trade  of  the  colony.  In  this  way  these 
in  trade  bondsmen  were  enabled  to  shape  the  financial 
granted  policy    of    the    little    community,    keep    their 

hands  on  the  sources  of  income,  and  see  to  it 
that  the  receipts  were  more  than  the  expenditures.  The 
common  property  and  the  trading  equipment  of  the  colony 
were  committed  to  their  direction;  and  they  were  to  have 
the  say  in  business  and  in  the  ordering  of  all  money  affairs 
so  far  as  they  concerned  the  common  interests.  All  the 
traffic  of  the  plantation,  save  what  little  might  be  carried 
on  in  a  small  way  between  individuals,  was  to  be  in  their 
hands.  They  were  to  import  a  certain  amount  of  goods, 
such  as  shoes  and  stockings,  and  to  have  the  exclusive 
privilege  of  bartering  with  the  Indians  and  with  the  vari- 
ous settlements  up  and  down  the  coast.  As  the  indorsers 
for  the  colony  were  to  monopolize  trade  to  this  extent,  so 
the  colonists  were  to  buy  of  them  at  a  stipulated  price  — 
a  stipulated  price  both  for  what  was  sold  and  for  what 
was  taken  in  payment.  This  arrangement  was  to  continue 
for  six  years,  then  business  was  to  revert  to  the  colony. 
Doubtless  this  seemed  hard  to  some,  but  it  was  only  by  such 
drastic  measures  of  direction  and  thrift  and  economy  that 
the  colony  could  hope  to  better  its  condition.  Hence  there 
was  general  acquiescence  in  the  scheme. 

The  third  step  in  reorganization  had  to  do  with  a  fur- 
ther division  and  allotment  of  land.  Each  shareholder  had 
already  a  single  acre.  In  addition  to  this,  twenty  acres 
were  allowed  to  each  shareholder.    Meadows  were  still  held 

18 


274  THE    PILGRIMS 

in  common.     But  from  this  time  on  each  man  had  enough 
land  which  he  could  call  his  own  to  make  a  snug  little  farm. 

A  new  motive  force  was  set  in  operation.  The 
Division  stock  of  cattle,  and  of  goats  and  swine,  was 
and  allot-  a]so  divided  and  apportioned  to  families  and 
ment  of  groups  of  families.    This  was  a  decided  inroad 

land  upon  the  scheme  with  which  the  colony  had 

begun  its  career.  It  was  also  a  vast  advance 
in  the  individualizing  of  duties  and  possessions  upon  what 
had  been  done  four  years  before,  when  the  members  of 
the  colony  were  allowed  and  encouraged  to  plant  corn  on 
their  own  account. 

Thus  at  length  the  colonists  had  things  in  their  own 
hands,  and  they  were  moving  along  on  the  right  track. 
One  begins  to  scent  assured  victory  in  the  air. 

XI 

At  this  juncture  a  piece  of  rare  good  fortune  fell  to  the 
lot  of  the  colonists.     Early  in  the  spring  of  1627,  Isaac 

de  Rassieres,  secretary  of  the  governing  body 
Taught  to  0f  the  Dutch  settlement  at  Manhattan,  wrote 
use  warn-  a  letter  to  Governor  Bradford  in  which  over- 
pum  for  tures  of  friendship  were  tendered  to  the  Pil- 
currency         grim  colony,  and  likewise  offers  to  enter  into 

trade  with  them.  At  that  time  the  immigrants, 
who  had  come  from  Holland  and  were  settled  on  Man- 
hattan Island  and  along  the  valleys  of  the  Hudson  and  the 
Mohawk,  numbered  not  far  from  three  hundred.  These 
people  claimed  the  territory  on  which  the  Pilgrims  had 
built  their  homes  and  started  their  state;  nor  were  they 
quite  wiling  to  give  up  their  claim.  Still,  they  were  not 
disposed  to  make  trouble  for  their  fellow  strugglers  on  the 
shores  of  this  new  wilderness-world,  but  rather  to  encour- 
age and  help  them.  The  Plymouth  colonists  were  prompt 
to  reciprocate  these  expressions  of  kindly  feeling.  It  would 
have  been  sad  had  it  been  otherwise.  The  experiences  of 
those  years  at  Leyden  —  on  the  one  side  of  hospitality  and 
protection  extended,  and  on  the  other  of  hospitality  and 
protection  received  —  were  fitted  to  be  a  special  bond  of 


THE    PILGRIMS  275 

union  between  the  Dutch  and  the  English  the  world  over. 
The  result  of  the  correspondence  was  that  in  the  autumn  of 
this  same  year,  1627,  the  Dutch  secretary  visited  Plymouth. 
From  him  the  colonists  learned  the  use  of  wampum. 

Wampum  was  a  currency  made  from  shells  —  for  the 
most  part  the  shells  of  the  round  clam.  It  was  new  at  that 
time  to  both  the  Pilgrims  and  the  natives  of  those  parts, 
and  it  was  a  couple  of  years  before  the  Indians  would 
consent  to  have  much  to  do  with  it. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  these  wampum  beads  were 
mere  gewgaws,  of  no  more  value  than  so  many  pebbles 
picked  up  on  the  shore.  This  would  not  be  true.  They 
had  no  intrinsic  value  like  gold  and  silver  and  copper  and 
iron,  but  each  bead  on  the  string  represented  a  certain 
amount  of  labor,  and  this  labor  gave  it  worth.  The  process 
of  making  this  money  is  thus  described  by  Goodwin :  "  The 
shell  was  broken  into  small  pieces,  which,  clipped  to  a 
somewhat  regular  form,  were  then  drilled,  ground  to  a 
rounded  shape  and  finely  polished."  "  Some  of  the  whites," 
so  he  added,  "  tried  to  produce  it  by  improved  processes ; 
but  they  soon  found  that  the  manufacture  of  such  as  the 
Indians  would  receive  cost  more  than  its  current  value." 
This  might  be  true  of  the  English  at  Plymouth,  but  ac- 
cording to  Griffis,  it  was  not  true  of  the  Dutch  in  their 
settlement.  He  says :  "  With  their  superior  tools,  drills, 
hammers,  knives,  and  lathes,  the  men  from  the  land  of  banks 
and  of  the  diamond  polishing  industry  were  able  quickly 
to  get  and  to  keep  the  manufacture  almost  entirely  in  their 
own  hands.  .  .  .  The  wampum  made  by  the  Dutch,  or  by 
squaws  under  Dutch  oversight,  was  not  only  far  better, 
but  much  more  beautiful,  than  that  from  the  red  men's 
fingers."  Three  of  the  purple  beads,  which  were  twice  the 
value  of  the  white  ones,  were  equivalent  to  a  penny.  The 
Pilgrims  bought  fifty  pounds  worth  of  these  beads  from 
de  Rassieres.  Thus  were  the  colonists  started  in  the  use 
of  a  medium  of  exchange  which  in  course  of  time,  though, 
as  has  just  been  intimated,  the  natives  with  whom  the 
colonists  did  business  did  not  take  to  it  at  once,  became 
of  great  advantage  to  them  in  their  future  trafficking. 

With  their  new  currency,  with  their  fresh  reorganiza- 


276  THE    PILGRIMS 

tkm,  with  their  definite  knowledge  of  just  what  they  had 
to  do,  and  with  the  fund  of  valuable  experience  which  they 
had  accumulated  in  their  seven  years  of  residence  in  the 
wilderness,  they  set  themselves  resolutely  to  the  task  before 
them. 

XII 

Under  the  obligations  now  assumed  it  became  necessary 
for  the  Pilgrims  to  enlarge  the   scope  of  their  business 

operations.  If  they  were  to  pay  out  more 
Expanding  money  year  by  year  they  must  make  more 
their  trade     money. 

One  of  the  moves  in  this  direction  was  the 
putting  up  of  a  trading-house  at  Manomet.  This  place  is 
on  a  river,  called  then  by  the  same  name,  though  it  is  now 

known  as  Monumet  River,  twenty  miles  from 
A  trading-  Plymouth,  and  on  the  south  side  of  Cape  Cod. 
house  at  j$v  establishing  a  trading-post  at  this  point 
Manomet       they  had  access  to  Buzzard's  Bay,  and  through 

this  channel  access  to  all  the  bays  and  rivers 
along  the  coast  and  along  the  shores  of  Long  Island,  with- 
out exposure  to  the  dangers  and  delays  of  a  trip  around 
the  cape.  In  addition  to  the  trading-house,  and  as  a  neces- 
sary part  of  the  outfit  for  doing  business,  they  built  a 
pinnace  —  a  boat,  that  is,  which  was  navigated  both  by 
sail  and  oar,  and  which  was  large  enough  to  hold  a  good 
store  of  freight.  The  distance  from  the  head  of  Buzzard's 
Bay  to  the  waters  of  the  cape  is  less  than  a  half-dozen 
miles.  By  using  small  craft  and  following  along  the 
Scusset  River,  even  this  short  distance  could  be  consider- 
ably reduced.  In  getting  goods,  therefore,  back  and  forth 
between  Plymouth  and  Long  Island  Sound,  what  little  land 
transportation  was  necessary  became  a  matter  of  small 
account.  The  trading-house  was  protected  by  a  palisade. 
Two  men  were  put  in  charge  of  the  property.  When  not 
off  on  trading  expeditions,  these  men  gave  attention  to 
agriculture  and  the  care  of  domestic  animals.  The  ven- 
ture proved  to  be  a  profitable  one,  and  must  have  met  the 
reasonable  expectations  of  the  colonists. 


THE    PILGRIMS  277 

Another  point  at  which  trade  was  pushed  with  fresh 
energy  and  greatly  enlarged,  was  on  the  Kennebec  River. 

A  trading-house  was  erected  at  what  is  now 
Trade  on  Augusta,  the  capital  of  Maine.  A  stock  of 
the  Ken-  articles  suited  to  Indian  tastes  was  laid  in, 
nebec  an(j   SOon   a   profitable   trade  was   established 

with  the  natives.  "  Coats,  shirts,  rugs,  blan- 
kets, corn,  biscuits,  pease,  prunes,  knives,  hatchets,  and 
wampum  "  were  exchanged  for  furs.  However,  it  took 
two  years  of  persuasion  to  induce  these  down-east  Indians 
to  adopt  "  wampum  "  as  a  current  coin.  This  trade,  es- 
tablished earlier  and  carried  on  in  a  somewhat  desultory 
way,  had  required  a  boat  of  larger  size  than  any  which 
they  possessed.  So,  as  Goodwin  tells  the  story,  the  Pil- 
grims "  persuaded  a  house-carpenter  to  saw  a  shallop  in 
halves  and  insert  some  six  feet  of  waist.  Thus  they  had  a 
decked  vessel,  '  convenient  and  whole,'  which  did  good  ser- 
vice for  seven  years;  and  with  this  barque  they  built  up 
a  fine  trade  on  the  Kennebec." 

Not  long  after  the  colonists  had  been  operating  on  the 
new  basis,  and  trade  on  the  Kennebec  had  assumed  larger 

and  more  promising  proportions,  another  piece 
The  Brad-  0f  rare  gOGd  fortune  befell  them.  This  was 
ford  patent    a  patent,  running  to  William  Bradford,  and 

through  him  to  his  heirs,  associates,  and  as- 
signs, sent  over  by  the  Council  for  New  England,  and 
signed  by  the  president  of  the  council,  the  powerful  Earl 
of  Warrick.  This  patent  for  the  first  time  defined  the 
boundaries  of  the  Plymouth  Colony.  But  the  feature  of 
the  instrument  which  gave  it  a  special  bearing  on  the  busi- 
ness of  debt-paying  was  the  grant  it  contained  of  a  well- 
defined  tract  on  the  Kennebec. 

As  early  as  the  autumn  of  1625,  "  Mr.  Winslow  and  some 
of  the  old  standards  "  had  pushed  up  the  Kennebec  River 
with  a  shallop  load  of  corn,  which  they  exchanged  with 
"  good  success  "  for  beaver  and  other  furs  that  the  Indians 
had  trapped.  Indeed  Bradford  claimed,  when  competitors 
in  the  fishing  vessels  and  at  Piscataqua  were  trying  to 
crowd  them  out  from  participation  in  this  profitable  traffic, 
that  it  was  his  people  who  "had  first  begun  and  discovered" 


278  THE    PILGRIMS 

this  opportunity  for  trade,  "  and  had  brought  it  to  so  good 
effect."  Allerton  had  secured  a  patent  covering  the  right 
to  a  monopoly  of  this  business,  and  on  the  ground  of  this 
exclusive  privilege  the  planters  had  gone  forward  and 
erected  the  trading-house  just  mentioned.  But  the  patent 
secured  by  Allerton  was  loosely  drawn,  and  the  rivals  of 
the  Plymouth  people  still  insisted  on  invading  a  territory 
so  promising  in  profits,  and  there  were  no  fixed  boundaries 
to  hinder  their  approaches.  This  new  Warrick  patent 
defined  the  limits  of  their  concession,  and  gave  to  the  Pil- 
grims exclusive  rights  in  a  section  beginning  at  Augusta 
and  running  thirteen  miles  down  the  river  and  extending 
fifteen  miles  on  each  side  of  it. 

Much  trouble  came  of  this  afterwards,  but  for  the  time 
being,  when  the  colonists  were  in  the  throes  of  their  hard 
struggle  for  financial  freedom,  it  was  a  great  thing  to  have 
full  legal  possession  of  a  section  of  the  country  which 
afforded  so  many  advantages  for  remunerative  traffic  with 
the  Indians.  The  Pilgrims  conducted  this  business  through 
an  agent  until  1638,  when  they  leased  it  for  one-sixth  of 
the  profits.  Attention  has  been  called  by  one  of  our  writers 
to  the  interesting  fact  that  it  was  out  of  this  "  one-sixth 
of  the  profits  "  that  the  law-and-order  loving  people  of 
Plymouth  built  their  first  prison. 

Here  the  music  falls  into  a  minor  key,  and  the  story  is 
anything  but  pleasant  to  relate.  For  if  good  fortune 
waited  on  the  colonists  in  the  matter  of  the 
The  Castine  Warrick  patent,  and  in  the  most  of  their  efforts 
venture  ^o  ge£   anead,  there   were   yet   accompanying 

misfortunes.  They  had  escaped  from  one  sea 
of  troubles,  but  they  were  speedily  launched  into  another. 
Just  when  they  were  moving  forward  to  assured  success  in 
meeting  all  their  obligations,  Allerton,  to  whom  the  Pil- 
grims owed  much,  as  they  themselves  were  ever  ready  to 
acknowledge,  but  who  was  by  nature  rather  more  venture- 
some than  scrupulous,  and  who  seems  to  have  deteriorated 
with  age,  not  only  exceeded  his  authority  in  business  trans- 
actions, but  took  advantage  of  his  position  as  trusted  agent 
of  the  colonists  to  work  for  his  own  private  interest. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  go  into  details  and  uncover 


THE    PILGRIMS  279 

item  by  item  the  tricks  and  selfish  schemes  of  this  man. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that  a  partnership  was  formed  between 
Allerton  and  some  of  the  London  Adventurers,  a  grant  of 
land  was  secured  on  the  Penobscot  River,  a  stock  of  goods 
was  bought,  an  agent  was  engaged  to  conduct  the  busi- 
ness, and  trade  was  opened  at  a  point  on  the  river  and 
within  their  grant  which  is  now  known  as  Castine.  To 
cover  appearances  and  make  them  serviceable  the  colonists 
were  invited  to  join  in  the  project.  Inasmuch  as  the 
trading-post  on  the  Penobscot  was  sure  to  become  a  for- 
midable rival  to  the  trading-post  on  the  Kennebec,  it  seemed 
wiser  to  the  Plymouth  men  to  fall  in  with  Allerton's  shrewd 
suggestion  and  take  their  chances  in  the  enterprise.  Goods, 
such  as  corn  and  wampum,  were  furnished  them,  and  the 
post  was  assisted  in  procuring  the  boats  needed  to  conduct 
exchanges  with  the  natives.  In  this  way  and  on  this  basis 
the  new  venture  was  started. 

The  result  was  disheartening,  but  not  surprising.  For 
it  was  soon  discovered  that  the  London  end  of  the  syndicate 
was  sending  all  its  best  and  most  attractive  goods  to  the 
Penobscot  rather  than  to  Plymouth,  and  that  the  Penob- 
scot end  was  sending  its  fat  profits,  not  to  Plymouth,  but 
to  London.  It  was  a  scheme  to  elicit  admiration  from  the 
high  officials  of  some  of  our  modern  insurance  companies. 
Disaster  followed  trickery.  When  Ashley,  a  disreputable 
character,  had  been  discharged  from  his  agency,  and  Willet, 
an  honest  man  and  a  representative  of  the  Plymouth  in- 
terests, had  been  put  in  his  place,  and  things  had  gone 
well  for  a  while,  the  French  took  advantage  of  his  tem- 
porary absence  from  the  post,  disarmed  the  servants,  and 
carried  off  something  like  five  hundred  pounds  worth  of 
merchandise.  Three  years  later,  in  1635,  the  French  ap- 
peared again.  This  time  they  came  with  sufficient  force 
to  take  complete  possession  of  the  post  and  all  the  goods. 
This  was  a  heavy  loss,  and  it  delayed  the  happy  issue  out 
of  their  troubles  for  which  the  Pilgrims  were  earnestly 
praying  and  faithfully  working. 


280  THE    PILGRIMS 

XIII 

Had  the  debit  side  of  the  ledger  received  no  entries  be- 
yond those  which  stood  in  the  books  when  the  colonists  first 
began  to  operate  under  the  new  arrangement, 
Debt  in-  tfie  end  of  the  long,  hard  struggle  would  have 
creased  by  Deen  {n  sight  much  sooner.  But  losses,  such 
bringing  as  have  been  indicated,  and  various  set-backs 
over  Ley-  postponed  the  happy  day. 
den  asso-  To  a^  iQ  the  weight  of  obligations  already 

ciates  upon  them,  the  Plymouth  contingent  of  the 

Pilgrims  assumed  the  entire  expense  of  bring- 
ing over  two  companies  of  their  Leyden  associates.  One 
of  these  companies,  consisting  of  thirty-five  persons,  arrived 
in  the  late  summer  of  1629.  These  were  landed  at  Salem. 
In  the  spring  of  the  next  year  the  second  company  came. 
These  were  landed  at  Charlestown,  and  made  their  way  to 
Plymouth,  as  did  those  who  landed  at  Salem,  in  small  coast- 
ing boats.  The  transportation  of  so  many  cost  a  large 
sum.  It  was  set  down  as  "  above  five  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds,  besides  their  fetching  from  Salem  and  the  Bay." 
This  was  not  the  whole  of  it,  however.  These  newcomers 
were  poor,  and  they  had  to  be  supported  —  some  of  them 
for  a  year  and  some  of  them  for  a  year  and  a  half  —  until 
they  were  in  condition  to  support  themselves.  "And  this 
charge  of  maintaining  them  all  this  while  was  little  less 
than  the  former  sum."  The  former  sum  was  just  given  as 
"  above  five  hundred  and  fifty  pounds." 

This,  however,  is  a  story  at  once  so  tender  and  so  credi- 
table to  all  concerned,  that  Bradford  must  be  allowed  to  tell 
it  in  his  own  words: 

"  These  things  I  note  more  particularly,  for  sundry 
regards. 

"  First,  to  show  a  rare  example  herein  of  brotherly  love 
and  Christian  care  in  performing  their  promises  and  coven- 
ants to  their  brethren,  to,  and  in  a  sort  beyond  their  power, 
that  they  should  venture  so  desperately  to  engage  them- 
selves to  accomplish  this  thing,  and  bear  it  so  cheerfully; 
for  they  never  demanded,  much  less  had,  any  repayment 
of  all  these  great  sums  thus  disbursed. 


THE    PILGRIMS  281 

"  Second,  it  must  needs  be  that  there  was  more  than  of 
man  in  their  achievements,  that  should  thus  readily  stir  up 
the  hearts  of  such  able  friends  to  join  in  partnership  with 
them  in  such  a  care,  and  cleave  so  faithfully  to  them  as  they 
did,  in  so  great  adventures ;  and  the  more  because  the  most 
of  them  never  saw  their  faces  to  this  day;  there  being 
neither  kindred,  alliance  or  other  acquaintance  or  relatives 
between  any  of  them  than  hath  been  before  mentioned;  it 
must  needs  be  therefore  the  special  work  and  hand  of  God. 

"  Third,  that  these  poor  people  here  in  the  wilderness 
should,  notwithstanding,  be  enabled  in  time  to  repay  all 
these  engagements,  and  many  more  unjustly  brought  upon 
them  through  the  unfaithfulness  of  some,  and  many  other 
great  losses  which  they  sustained,  which  will  be  made  mani- 
fest, if  the  Lord  be  pleased  to  give  life  and  time.  In  the 
meantime,  I  cannot  but  admire  His  ways  and  works  towards 
His  servants,  and  humbly  desire  to  bless  His  holy  name  for 
His  great  mercies  hitherto." 

What  a  resplendent  memorial  window  does  this  passage 
make  in  the  simple  but  magnificent  temple  of  civil  and  reli- 
gious liberty  which  the  Pilgrims  were  erecting  in  the 
wilderness ! 

Further  embarrassment  was  imported  into  the  situation 
by  the  addition  of  the  names  of  four  men  in  London  to  the 
list  of  eight  or  nine  colonists  who  had  become 
Difficulties  responsible  for  the  proper  management  of  the 
increased  financial  affairs  of  the  colony.  These  men  were 
Sherley,  Beachamp,  Andrews,  and  Hatherly. 
It  was  thought  that  these  names  would  increase  the  credit 
of  the  colony  and  greatly  facilitate  the  doing  of  business 
abroad.  Of  the  value  of  Hatherly's  services  we  shall  learn 
more  as  we  proceed.  But  Sherley,  while  pretending  great 
regard  for  the  Pilgrims,  and  for  a  time  trusted  by  them, 
either  through  business  incompetency,  or  carelessness,  or 
downright  dishonesty,  added  greatly  to  the  burden  of  the 
colony  and  delayed  final  settlement  much  longer  than 
otherwise  would  have  been  necessary. 


282  THE    PILGRIMS 


XIV 


This  is,  perhaps,  the  most  suitable  place  for  saying  that, 
within  the  quarter  of  a  century  in  which  the  Pilgrims  were 

struggling  with  their  debts,  there  were  other 
Helpful  accessions  to  the  colony  besides  those  brought 

accessions  over  from  Leyden.  Some  of  these  were  men  of 
to  the  exceptional  intelligence  and  energy,  and  they 

colony  were    exceedingly    useful    to    the    settlement. 

This  is  also  true  of  a  number  of  those  who 
joined  the  colony  from  Leyden.  Both  amongst  their  old 
associates  and  in  the  groups  of  new  friends  who  from  time 
to  time  cast  in  their  lot  with  them,  there  were  accessions 
whose  presence  added  to  the  material  and  moral  resources 
of  the  little  company,  and  made  it  easier  to  secure  progress. 
A  few  of  these  will  have  mention  further  on  in  connection 
with  special  services  which  they  rendered.  The  names  of 
others,  and  the  contributions  they  made  through  their  char- 
acters and  deeds  to  the  welfare  of  the  Pilgrim  state,  may 
have  record  here. 

One  of  the  most  vigorous  and  helpful  men  who  joined  the 
colony  after  the  first  settlement  had  been  made  at  Ply- 
mouth was  Timothy  Hatherly.  He  was  one  of 
Timothy  ^ne  Merchant  Adventurers,  as  well  as  one  of  the 
Hatherly  four  Londoners  who  became  associated  with  the 
group  of  colonists  in  their  efforts  to  extricate 
the  settlement  from  debt.  Goodwin  says  that  he  had  been 
over  twice  before;  but  in  163&  he  identified  himself  more 
intimately  with  the  Pilgrims  and  settled  at  Scituate.  He 
counted  but  a  unit  in  the  census  of  the  new  state;  but  he 
counted  much  more  than  a  unit  in  pluck  and  foresight. 
He  knew  how  to  plan  and  push.  His  mind  was  active,  and 
he  was  full  of  the  spirit  of  enterprise.  For  those  days  his 
wealth  was  considerable;  and  though  he  lost  heavily  at 
times  by  fire  and  in  other  ways,  he  never  failed  to  recover 
his  financial  standing.  Undertakings  which  promised  to 
be  of  advantage  to  the  colony  were  sure  to  have  his  cordial 
support.     Good  sense  and  catholicity  of  temper  marked  his 


THE    PILGRIMS  283 

conduct.  When  the  craze  of  opposition  to  the  Quakers 
was  at  its  height  he  refused  to  yield  to  it,  and  kept  his  head 
level.  Like  Cudworth  and  Robinson,  Hatherly  lost  the 
favor  of  the  authorities  by  his  attitude  in  this  controversy, 
and  for  a  while  had  to  retire  into  the  background ;  but  his 
merit  was  recognized,  and  in  the  long  run  he  lost  nothing 
by  his  wise  and  brave  stand  against  a  zeal  that  was 
without  knowledge. 

William  Thomas  was  a  notable  man.     He  came  to  Ply- 
mouth in  1630.    He  was  one  of  the  Merchant  Adventurers, 
and    in    this    capacity    reference  has    already 
"William         been  made  to  him.     He  was  of  the  sturdy  type 
Thomas  0f  Englishmen,  and  he  stood  for  things  high- 

toned  and  manly.  The  charge  of  illiberality  in 
his  religious  views  and  conduct  has  been  laid  at  his  door, 
but  neither  his  personal  integrity,  nor  his  efficiency,  nor  his 
interest  in  the  good  of  the  colony,  has  ever  been  called  in 
question.  He  removed  from  Plymouth  to  Barnstable,  and 
later  he  became  a  resident  of  Marshfield.  He  represented, 
first  Barnstable,  and  then  Marshfield,  in  the  General  Court ; 
and  for  seven  years  he  was  one  of  the  governor's  assist- 
ants. The  town  in  which  he  spent  his  closing  years  still 
cherishes  his  memory;  and  a  line  of  brave  and  worthy 
descendants  has  honored  the  name  he  gave  them. 

John  Jenney  was  a  man  of  mark.  He  reached  the  colony 
from  Ley  den  in  1623.     Not  all  at  once,  but  in  the  later 

years  of  his  life  he  made  his  presence  felt  de- 
Jolm  cisively  in  the  business  activities  of  the  com- 

Jenney  munity.     He  built  a  grist-mill.     The  mill  did 

not  do  its  work  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of 
the  people  who  were  served  by  it ;  but  it  was  a  move  in  the 
right  direction.  He  engaged  in  ship-building ;  and  induced 
a  dozen  or  more  of  the  leading  men  of  the  colony  to  join 
him  in  meeting  the  expense  of  the  construction  of  the  larg- 
est vessel  that  had  been  put  on  the  stocks  up  to  the  time  of 
his  death  in  1644.  He  was  one  of  the  eight  men  appointed 
to  cooperate  with  the  governor  and  his  assistants  in  for- 
mulating a  code  of  laws.  He  was  a  public-spirited  and 
energetic  citizen ;   and  he  did  much  to  keep  things  going. 


284  THE    PILGRIMS 

Thomas  Willet  was  a  man  whose  career,  as  we  study  it 
from  this  distance,  is  exceedingly  interesting.  He  came 
from  Ley  den,  and  reached  Plymouth  in  1630. 
Thomas  jje  was  then  only  about  twenty  years  of  age. 

Willet  jn  his  ability  and  character,  however,  he  gave 

promise  of  great  usefulness,  and  this  promise 
was  fulfilled.  Not  long  after  his  arrival  he  was  drafted 
into  service  in  connection  with  Edward  Ashley  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  trading-post  at  Castine,  on  the  Penobscot 
River.  Ashley,  as  has  just  been  said,  was  a  man  in  every 
way  disreputable.  In  a  short  time  he  was  arrested  for 
wrong-doing  and  sent  back  to  England.  Willet  succeeded 
to  the  business.  Things  went  on  swimmingly  for  a  while; 
but  the  robbery  of  the  station,  already  mentioned,  by  the 
French  in  1632,  and  the  practical  confiscation  of  the  en- 
tire stock  of  goods  and  the  expulsion  of  the  English  from 
the  post  three  years  later  by  D'Aulney,  who  was  acting 
under  orders  of  the  French  authorities,  brought  this  under- 
taking to  a  disastrous  issue,  and  changed  the  course  of 
Willet's  life.  But  it  did  not  change  the  respect  in  which  he 
was  held  by  his  associates  in  the  colony,  nor  block  his  way 
to  conspicuous  and  honorable  usefulness.  He  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  trading-post  on  the  Kennebec.  Not  long  after, 
on  account,  no  doubt,  of  his  knowledge  of  the  language,  of 
his  keen  business  sense  and  uprightness  in  dealing  with 
men,  and  of  his  agreeable  manners  and  tact,  we  find  him 
shifted  over  into  trade  with  the  Dutch  at  Manhattan. 

All  through,  Willet  was  an  alert  and  trusted  citizen. 
He  became  captain  of  the  little  company  of  rustic  soldiers 
at  Plymouth.  For  fourteen  years  he  was  assistant  to  the 
governor. 

The  fact,  however,  which  gives  to  the  man  a  peculiar 
eminence  in  history,  is  that  he  was  the  first  mayor  of  the 
city  of  New  York.  He  was  appointed  to  this  office  by  the 
commissioners  of  the  king  when  the  English  came  in  and 
captured  the  settlement  in  1664.  It  was  then  only  a  Dutch 
trading-station ;  but  in  variety  of  races  and  tongues  repre- 
sented among  its  people,  it  was  already  giving  promise  of 
the  greatness  to  which  it  was  to  rise.  The  Dutch  recaptured 
the  place  in  1673.     Willet  then  came  back  to  the  colony. 


THE    PILGRIMS  285 

Still,  it  will  never  cease  to  be  an  interesting  incident  that  it 
was  a  member  of  the  Pilgrim  Colony  who  headed  the  long 
line  of  distinguished  men  who  have  presided  over  the  des- 
tinies and  guided  the  affairs  of  the  metropolis  of  our  nation. 
A  great  grandson  of  this  first  mayor  was  also  mayor  of 
New  York.  Near  the  close  of  his  life,  Willet  transferred  his 
residence  from  Plymouth  to  Swansea.  On  the  succession 
of  the  Dutch  to  power  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,  he  re- 
turned to  his  new  home;  and  there,  a  year  later,  honored 
and  beloved,  he  passed  on  to  his  reward. 

There  were  others  who  were  helpful  to  the  colony  in  many 
ways  during  the  years  of  severe  struggle  in  which  the  brave 

leaders  were  trying  to  lift  its  burdens  and  gain 
Other  a    secure    footing    for    themselves    and    their 

names  institutions.      John   Atwood,   Isaac   Robinson, 

Nathaniel  Morton,  the  Southworths,  Constant 
and  Thomas,  and  others  of  similar  ability  and  character 
fall  into  this  class.  All  that  it  is  necessary  to  say  about 
them  is,  that  they  were  efficient  aids  to  the  colony  in  those 
days  of  hard  wrestling  when  every  atom  of  help  counted. 


XV 

It  is  refreshing,  however,  to  be  able  to  write  that  all 
their  burdens,  piled  one  after  another  on  top  of  the  load 

they  set  out  to  carry,  while  they  staggered 
Free  at  an(j  sometimes  dismayed  them  for  the  moment, 

last  did  not  crush  the  Pilgrims.     Year  after  year 

they  planted  their  slowly  widening  fields ;  they 
gathered  their  steadily  increasing  harvests ;  they  nourished 
their  herds  and  flocks ;  they  plucked  wealth  from  the  seas ; 
they  sold  their  surplus  products  to  neighboring  colonies 
and  the  red  men  of  the  forest;  they  bartered  their  goods, 
bought  at  high  prices  and  brought  from  afar,  in  exchange 
for  otter  and  beaver,  and  turned  over  their  gains  to  their 
creditors  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  They  planned 
carefully ;  they  worked  hard ;  they  lived  frugally ;  they  de- 
nied themselves  comforts,  and  many  things  even  which  might 


286  THE    PILGRIMS 

have  been  considered  necessary  to  their  general  welfare,  in 
order  to  meet  their  obligations  and  clean  the  slate  of  debt. 
They  were  often  at  their  wits'  end,  and  in  doubt  which  way 
to  turn  and  what  to  do  next ;  but  they  never  hesitated  long, 
and  when  disappointments  and  disasters  overtook  them  they 
soon  rallied,  and  gathering  up  what  strength  they  had  and 
using  all  available  resources,  they  pressed  straight  on  to 
their  goal. 

The  struggle  was  protracted.  Concerning  the  exact  time 
when  it  could  be  said  of  the  colony  that  it  was  free  from  all 
indebtedness,  the  writers  differ.  Dr.  Morton  Dexter  has  a 
passage  in  which  he  says :  "  But  good  fortune  smiled  upon 
them  and  by  great  exertions  they  appear  to  have  paid  all 
their  obligations  in  full  in  the  course  of  1633."  He  draws 
this  conclusion  from  a  statement  made  by  Bradford.  But 
a  close  examination  of  Bradford's  language  leads  one  to 
question  whether  the  inference  is  warranted.  His  words 
are :  "  It  pleased  the  Lord  to  enable  them  this  year  to  send 
home  a  good  quantity  of  beaver,  besides  paying  all  their 
charges,  and  debts  at  home."  It  was  accounts  at  the 
home  end  of  the  line  — "  all  their  charges,  and  debts 
at  home,"  of  which  Bradford  was  speaking,  and  not  the 
heavier  accounts  across  in  England.  Goodwin,  as  seen  in 
the  quotation  which  stands  at  the  head  of  this  chapter, 
adjourns  this  happy  consummation  to  1646.  This  is  no 
doubt  the  correct  date.  Had  the  Pilgrims  received  due 
credit  for  all  their  assignments ;  or  had  they  been  able  to 
secure  a  satisfactory  settlement  of  their  affairs,  their  de- 
liverance from  debt,  even  in  spite  of  all  the  misfortunes  they 
suffered  and  the  injustices  and  frauds  which  were  practised 
upon  them,  would  have  come  much  earlier. 

Still  deliverance  came  at  length.  After  a  steady  and  de- 
termined effort,  which  stretched  on  through  a  period  of 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  to  accomplish  their  pur- 
pose and  gain  this  high  vantage  ground,  the  hour  came 
when  the  Pilgrims  owed  no  man  anything.  It  was  an  hour 
for  the  doxology. 


XIV 

RELATIONS  WITH  THE   INDIANS 


They  treated  the  Indians  with  justice  and  good  faith. 

George  F.  Hoar. 

The  course  of  conduct  pursued  towards  them  had  been  praiseworthy 
in  a  singular  degree.  The  Indians  were  a  people  extremely  difficult  to 
deal  with  by  reason  alike  of  their  mental  and  of  their  moral  defects ;  but  they 
were  treated  equitably  and  generously.  —  John  G.  Palfrey. 

In  1676,  it  was  as  truly  as  proudly  said  by  Governor  Josiah  Winslow, 
of  Plymouth,  "I  think  I  can  clearly  say,  that  before  these  present  troubles 
broke  out,  the  English  did  not  possess  one  foot  of  land  in  this  Colony  but 
what  was  fairly  obtained  by  honest  purchase  of  the  Indian  proprietors." 

Alexander  Young. 

The  people  of  Plymouth  never  did,  until  after  Philip's  war,  claim  or 
obtain  any  lands  belonging  to  the  Indians,  by  violence  or  conquest.  After 
the  defeat  and  dispersion  of  the  Wampanoags,  fifty-six  years  after  the  first 
settlement,  then,  and  not  till  then,  were  the  lands  occupied  by  them,  seques- 
trated by  the  Conquerors,  for  the  benefit  of  wounded  soldiers,  and  those 
who  had  been  ruined  by  the  desolations  of  that  fierce  contest. 

Jonathan  Prescott  Hall. 

Through  the  instrumentality  of  Governor  Edward  Winslow,  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament  passed  an  act  for  promoting  and  propagating  the  gospel 
amongst  the  Indians  in  New  England;  and  a  society  was  incorporated  for 
the  purpose  of  receiving  donations  which  the  Commissioners  of  the  United 
Colonies  were  authorized  to  appropriate  as  they  saw  fit. 

Francis  Baylies. 

The  natives  of  Cape  Cod  .  .  .  and  their  successors  ever  remained 
fast  friends  of  the  whites.  Indeed,  the  very  extensive  missionary  labor 
among  them  was  far  more  effective  and  enduring  than  the  justly  famed  work 
in  Massachusetts  by  John  Eliot.  —  John  A.  Goodwin. 


XIV 

RELATIONS  WITH  THE   INDIANS 

SMALL  wits  have  a  fashion  of  saying  that  the  Pilgrims, 
on  reaching  these  shores,  first  fell  on  their  knees  and 
then  on  the  aborigines.  This  is  cheap  punning  and 
rather  tame  caricature.  The  simple  fact  is,  that  these  na- 
tives of  the  land  were  dealt  with  in  a  way  to  meet  at  once  the 
conditions  of  justice  and  mercy  to  savage  tribes  and  of 
safety  and  growth  to  Christian  colonists. 


It  is  not  to  be  disguised  that  the  Pilgrims  had  a  vivid 
conception  and  a  wholesome  dread  of  the  blood-thirstiness 
of  the  Indians.  They  shared  the  common  view 
Feared  0f  their  day  that  these  people  were  malignant 

ferocity  an(j  treacherous  to  the  last  degree.     One  of 

of  the  the   strongest   objections  to  going  to  North 

savages  America  grew  out  of  this  fear  of  the  red  men. 

Going  there,  they  would  "  be  in  continual 
danger,"  so  it  was  said,  "  of  the  savage  people,  who  are 
cruel,  barbarous,  and  most  treacherous,  being  most  furious 
in  their  rage,  and  merciless  when  they  overcame ;  not  being 
content  only  to  kill,  and  take  away  life,  but  delight  to  tor- 
ment men  in  the  most  bloody  manner  that  may  be,  flaying 
some  alive  with  the  shells  of  fishes,  cutting  off  the  members 
and  joints  of  others  by  piecemeal,  and,  broiling  on  the 
coals,  eat  the  collops  of  their  flesh  in  their  sight  while  they 
live,  with  other  cruelties  too  horrible  to  be  related." 

The  exiles  as  a  body  did  not  entertain  this  estimate  of 
the  Indians ;  but  they  knew  that  they  were  savages,  untu- 
tored, jealous  of  encroachments,  revengeful,  often  more 
inhuman  than  death ;  and  that  it  would  be  no  child's  play  to 

19 


290  THE    PILGRIMS 

overcome  their  opposition,  maintain  amicable  relations  with 
them,  and  on  grounds  considered  their  own  by  right  of  im- 
memorial inheritance,  open  lands  and  build  up  homes  and 
lay  the  foundations  of  another  and  higher  style  of  life. 

n 

At  the  opening  of  this  rehearsal  of  the  story  of  the  In- 
dians and  the  relations  of  the  Pilgrims  to  them  during  the 

earlier  years  of  the  settlement  at  Plymouth, 
Providential  one  cannot  help  noting  how  marked  was  the 
preparations  providence  by  which  the  way  was  prepared  for 
for  coming  tne  colonists  to  make  their  landfall  in  safety, 
of  the  an(j  permanently  to  establish  their  homes  with 

Pilgrims        the   fewest   possible   chances   of   friction   and 

danger. 
Forerunning  these,  were  other  providences,  fitting  into 
this  one  as  cog  to  mesh,  which  were  quite  as  significant  in 

their  bearing  on  the  final  issue.  How  striking, 
An  nnseen  for  instance,  that  after  all  their  three  or  four 
pilot  years  of  conference,  and  all  their  efforts  to  do 

at  the  something  else,  the  Pilgrims  were  shut  up  to 

helm  jusj-  t-ne  one  course  they  took.     How  striking 

again  that  at  a  most  critical  moment  the  winds 
and  the  currents,  quite  independent  of  the  gratuitous  and 
unproven  charge  of  treachery  on  the  part  of  the  captain  of 
the  vessel  he  sailed,  were  made  to  overrule  the  intentions  of 
the  voyagers,  so  that  instead  of  being  carried  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Hudson  they  were  set  down  on  the  coast  of  Eastern 
Massachusetts.  To  devout  minds,  or  minds  which  believe 
that  God  is  in  his  world  to-day  as  he  was  yesterday,  and 
that  he  is  evermore  a  controlling  factor  in  human  affairs, 
there  will  always  seem  something  divine  in  the  direction 
given  to  the  ship  which  bore  our  exiles  to  their  high  des- 
tiny. The  shore  was  bleak,  and  the  soil  was  far  from 
possessing  the  fertility  of  the  fat  river  valleys;  but  this 
craft  of  undying  fame  was  conducted  by  an  invisible  pilot 
to  the  right  haven  —  a  haven  made  ready  to  insure  the 
safety  of  the  precious  freight  she  had  brought  across  the 
waters. 


THE    PILGRIMS  291 

Consider  for  a  little  the  situation.  Had  the  savages 
existed  to  the  number  which  had  once  occupied  the  territory 
about  to  be  possessed  by  these  Englishmen, 
The  Pa-  even  though  they  had  been  far  less  ferocious 

tuxets  an-  g^  crue\  than  the  imagination  of  Europeans 
nihilated  hacj  pictured  them,  they  would  have  constituted 
a  formidable  foe,  and  the  peril  of  invading 
their  lands  and  attempting  to  displace  them  would  have 
been  very  great.  The  Patuxets  formerly  lived  in  this 
section  of  the  country.  Long  before  the  arrival  of  the 
whites  on  these  shores  influences  were  at  work,  such  as  fierce 
tribal  wars  and  contagious  diseases,  which  were  decimating 
the  Indians,  and  portending  in  no  long  time  the  extinction 
of  the  race.  The  Patuxets,  so  we  are  led  to  infer,  were 
sharers  in  this  general  decay.  But  the  ruin  of  the  tribe 
was  hastened  and  made  complete  by  the  breaking  out  of  a 
destructive  plague  four  years  before  the  coming  of  the  Pil- 
grims. The  fatal  disease  continued  its  ravages  for  two 
years.  What  it  was  has  not  been  determined  —  only  it  is 
known  to  have  been  neither  yellow  fever  nor  smallpox.  It 
began  near  the  Saco  River  in  Maine  and  worked  its  blight- 
ing way  south  as  far  as  Narragansett  Bay.  White  men 
were  not  affected  by  it.  Indians  went  down  before  it  like 
grass  before  a  prairie  fire. 

In  this  twofold  way,  immediately  before  the  arrival  of 
the  Pilgrims,  the  Plymouth  region  was  swept  practically 
clean  of  its  native  inhabitants.  Only  a  single  member 
so  far  as  known  of  the  Patuxets  was  left  alive.  Of  him 
we  shall  have  occasion  to  say  more  presently. 

Other  contiguous  tribes  were  well-nigh  annihilated.  The 
plague  had  spared  the  Pequods  and  Narragansetts ;  but 
other  forms  of  disease  and  wars  were  making 
Other  fatal  inroads  on  their  numbers  and  strength, 

tribes  Qf  the  tribes  seriously  affected  by  the  plague  it 

smitten  h^  been  estimated  that  nineteen  out  of  every 

twenty  of  the  population  were  taken  off.  In 
the  Massachusetts  Confederacy  the  pestilence  reduced  the 
effective  warriors  from  something  like  three  thousand  to 
about  one  hundred. 

The  door  for  entrance  at  Plymouth  was  more  than  ajar. 


292  THE    PILGRIMS 

God  in  his  own  mysterious  way  had  swung  it  wide  open. 
By  landing  just  there  and  at  just  that  time,  the  dangers  of 
attacks  upon  the  Pilgrims  by  the  savages  were  reduced 
to  their  lowest  terms. 

Ill 

The  first  contact  of  the  Pilgrims  with  the  Indians  was  of 
a  nature  to  startle  them  and  put  them  on  their  guard.    In 

each  of  their  three  exploring  expeditions  they 
A  start-  came  close  to  small  bands  of  savages ;  but  in 
lmg  intro-  on\y  one  0f  them  did  these  people  of  the  forest 
duction  to  display  any  disposition  to  make  a  stand  and 
the  In-  show  fight.     This  was  on  their  final  tour  in 

dians  search  of  the  right  spot  at  which  to  make  their 

landing.  At  the  close  of  one  of  their  most 
wearisome  days  of  travel  and  observation,  at  "  about  mid- 
night," in  their  little  extemporized  barricade,  they  "  heard 
a  hideous  and  great  cry."  After  a  little  investigation  they 
concluded  the  cry  came  from  "  a  company  of  wolves,  or  such 
like  beasts."  It  was  not  wolves,  but  Indians  prowling  about. 
The  next  morning  the  cry  was  heard  again ;  and  this  time 
the  cry  was  accompanied  with  arrows.  The  arrows  were 
answered  with  musket  shots ;  and  altogether  it  was  quite  a 
little  skirmish.  When  the  answering  fire  got  too  hot  for 
the  Indians,  they  turned  on  their  heels  and  fled.  The  Pil- 
grims followed  them  up  for  a  short  distance,  "  and  shouted 
once  or  twice,  and  shot  off  two  or  three  pieces.  .  .  .  This 
they  did,  that  they  might  conceive  that  they  were  not  afraid 
of  them  or  any  way  discouraged." 

The  Indians  who  made  this  attack  were  of  the  tribe  of 
the  Nausites,  whose  headquarters  were  at  Nauset,  or  what 

is  now  Eastham.  They  were  naturally  and 
Attacking  justly  incensed  against  the  whites  on  account 
Indians  0f  the  atrocious  conduct  of  Captain  Thomas 

were  Hunt,  who,  back  in  1614,  while  his  ship  was 

Nausites        lying  at  anchor  in  the  harbor,  seized  seven  of 

their  number,  to  which  he  added  twenty  kid- 
napped from  the  interior  of  the  country,  and  then  sailed 
away  with  them  to  Europe  where  they  were  sold  into 


THE    PILGRIMS  293 

slavery.  Moreover,  these  were  the  Indians  from  whom  the 
exploring  party  of  the  Pilgrims  had  taken  the  corn  which 
they  had  stored  up  for  the  winter.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
they  were  hostile,  and  that  two  years  after  the  Hunt 
outrage,  when  a  French  fishing-smack  was  cast  away  on 
Cape  Cod,  they  set  upon  the  helpless  mariners,  and  pursued 
and  slaughtered  them  till  only  three  were  left;  and  that 
still  more  recently  they  had  slain  three  Englishmen  belong- 
ing to  Gorges'  ships  or  parties.  Nor  is  it  any  wonder  that 
this  fresh  importation  of  white  men,  who  had  already  helped 
themselves  to  supplies  from  their  rude  garners,  filled  their 
minds  with  alarm,  and  kindled  in  them  anew  the  determina- 
tion to  be  avenged  in  blood  for  the  grievous  wrongs  done 
them,  and  on  no  pretenses  to  be  tricked  again.  It  was  this 
lurking  sense  of  past  injustice  which  sharpened  and  winged 
the  arrows  against  this  little  band  of  well-meaning  home- 
seekers. 

On  neither  side  was  any  one  hurt;    but  the  Pilgrims, 
thinking  no  doubt  that  this  experience  of  attack  and  con- 
flict might  be  many  times  repeated,  called  the 
Skirmish        piace  the  "  First  Encounter."     In  this  desig- 
called  nation  they  were  falling  in,  as  was  the  custom 

"First  0f  |jie  day,  with  Old  Testament  usage.     In 

Encounter"  Samuel,  for  instance,  the  place  where  Abner's 
twelve  men  tried  conclusions  with  the  twelve 
men  of  Joab  is  called  "  The  field  of  the  sharp  knives." 
If  this  mere  picket-line  engagement  may  appear  slightly 
amusing  in  our  eyes,  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  the  busi- 
ness wore  an  aspect  altogether  different  back  there  on  that 
gray  December  morning,  in  that  unexplored  wilderness,  not 
far  from  three  hundred  years  ago. 

IV 

After  these  experiences,  save  that  on  one  occasion,  about 
the  middle  of  February,  some  tools  which  Standish  and 

Cooke  had  left  in  the  woods  were  taken  by  the 
Samoset's  natives,  all  the  intercourse  which  was  carried 
welcome         on  between  the  Pilgrims  and  the  Indians  for 

three  months  was  now  and  then  catching 
glimpses  of  each  other. 


294  THE    PILGRIMS 

But  one  morning,  well  on  into  the  spring,  when  the  days 
had  begun  to  be  "  fair  "  and  "  warm,"  and  the  birds  were 
singing,  "  in  the  woods  most  pleasantly,"  and  "  some  garden 
seed  was  sown,"  there  fell  upon  the  ears  of  a  few  of  the 
leading  colonists  who  were  then  in  grave  deliberation  on 
military  questions,  the  sweet  but  surprising  word  —  "  Wel- 
come." It  was  sweet  because  it  was  in  English,  and 
conveyed  a  sentiment  all  were  glad  to  hear. 

Nevertheless,  the  sound  of  it  caused  every  pulse  to  beat 
quick  with  alarm.  For  the  salutation  was  uttered  by  a 
"  savage,"  who  broke  in  upon  the  little  parliament  of  wise 
ones  "  very  boldly  "  and  "  all  alone."  It  was  soon  discov- 
ered that  this  intruder  was  not  an  enemy  in  disguise,  bent 
on  spying  out  the  weakness  of  the  colony  and  betraying 
them  all  to  their  destruction,  but  an  honest  man,  "  free  in 
speech,  so  far  as  he  could  express  his  mind,"  sincere,  and 
with  no  thoughts  or  feelings  other  than  those  of  the  utmost 
friendliness.  He  was  the  first  Indian  with  whom  the  colo- 
nists came  into  personal  touch. 


The  name  of  this  child  of  the  forest  was  Samoset.  He 
had  learned  some  broken  English  from  the  Englishmen 
who  came  to  fish  on  the  coast  of  Maine.  He 
Some  ac-  was  an  original  proprietor  of  the  place  and 
count  of  chief  of  the  tribe  located  in  what  is  now  known 
Samoset  as  the  town  of  Bristol  in  that  state.     Several 

months  before  the  arrival  of  the  Mayflower 
he  had  been  brought  from  his  home  in  the  east  to  Cape  Cod. 
He  still  lingered  in  the  region.  Conscious  of  his  own 
friendly  interest,  and  apparently  free  from  any  suspicion 
of  harm  to  himself,  this  visitor  to  the  newcomers  was  dis- 
posed to  make  himself  at  home  at  once.  Indeed,  he  was  dis- 
posed to  make  himself  quite  too  much  at  home  to  suit  the 
cautious  notions  of  his  hosts.  He  would  have  gone  straight 
into  the  rendezvous  the  Pilgrims  had  erected,  had  he  been 
allowed.  He  did  not  hesitate,  however,  to  make  his  wants 
known.     He  asked  for  beer ;  for  in  association  with  Eng- 


THE    PILGRIMS  295 

lishmen  he  had  learned  something  about  them  beside  their 
language.  His  courteous  entertainers  went  beyond  his 
asking  and  gave  him  "  strong  water,  and  biscuit  and  butter 
and  cheese,  and  pudding,  and  a  piece  of  a  mallard,  all  of 
which  he  liked  well."  One  who  has  seen  a  hungry  Indian 
eat  can  readily  understand  the  hearty  relish  with  which 
these  savory  articles  of  diet  were  devoured. 

Nor  was  this  the  full  extent  of  the  kindness  shown  to 
the  red  man.  He  was  "  stark  naked,"  or  practically  so. 
These  compassionate  disciples  of  a  compassionate  Master, 
shivering  themselves,  no  doubt,  from  the  sharp  winds 
which  had  arisen  on  that  March  day,  and  not  without  a 
keen  sense,  in  the  trying  circumstances  in  which  they  were 
placed,  of  the  prudential  value  of  a  hospitality  the  most 
thoughtful  and  generous,  "  cast  a  horseman's  coat  about 
him."  There  in  that  circle,  with  his  nakedness  covered 
and  his  stomach  full,  he  must  have  felt  unusually  com- 
fortable. It  is  not  strange  that  he  forgot  the  instinctive 
reticence  of  his  race  and  became  garrulous.  "  All  the 
afternoon  we  spent  in  conversation  with  him."  The  name 
of  the  place  where  they  then  were  he  told  them  was  Patuxet. 
He  also  told  them  of  the  fearful  ravages  of  the  plague,  to 
which  reference  has  just  been  made,  by  which  the  native 
inhabitants  were  swept  away  till  "  neither  man,  woman,  nor 
child  "  remained. 

It  was  only  human  in  him  to  want  to  stay  longer  with 
these  good  friends  who  had  robes  with  which  to  cover  his 
back,  and  liquors  with  which  to  warm  his  marrow  and 
loosen  his  tongue,  and  wild  duck  with  which  to  satisfy  his 
appetite  and  transport  him  into  an  elysium  of  content. 
"  We  would  gladly  have  been  rid  of  him  at  night ;  but  he 
was  not  willing  to  go  this  night.  Then  we  thought  to  carry 
him  on  shipboard ;  wherewith  he  was  well  content,  and  went 
into  the  shallop;  but  the  wind  was  high,  and  the  water 
scant,  that  it  could  not  return  back.  We  lodged  him  that 
night  at  Stephen  Hopkins'  house,  and  watched  him."  The 
next  day  he  was  successfully  dismissed.  But  he  went  away 
bearing  gifts.  The  leaders  presented  him  "  a  knife,  a 
bracelet  and  a  ring."  Moreover,  they  secured  a  promise 
from  him  —  which  could  not  have  been  very  difficult — « 


296  THE    PILGRIMS 

"  within  a  night  or  two  to  come  again,"  and  to  bring  with 
him  some  of  their  neighbors  of  his  race.  They  asked  also 
to  have  furs  brought  to  them  by  him  and  his  friends  when 
they  should  come  the  next  time,  in  order  that  trade  might 
be  opened  with  them. 

As  might  have  been  anticipated,  "  the  savage  "  returned 
the  very  next  day.     His  satisfaction  in  "  strong  water  " 

and  "  mallard  "  was  too  keen  to  permit  him  to 
Acquaint-  linger  long  on  the  way  to  such  another  feast, 
ance  made  jje  «  brought  with  him  five  other  tall,  proper 
with  other  men."  These  men  were  of  the  "  complexion  " 
Indians  0f  u  English  gypsies."     They  had  "  no  hair, 

or  very  little,  on  their  faces."  "  On  their 
heads"  they  had  hair  reaching  "  to  their  shoulders ; " 
"  only  "  it  was  "  cut  before."  Some  of  them  had  their  hair 
"  turned  up  before  with  a  feather,  broadside  like  a  fan." 
Another  with  more  of  the  Indian  dude  in  him  than  the  rest, 
had  his  head  ornamented  with  a  fox  tail.  They  were 
dressed  in  the  height  of  fashion.  "  They  had,  every  man, 
a  deer  skin  on  him ;  and  the  principal  of  them  had  a  wild- 
cat's skin,  or  such  like,  on  his  arm.  They  had,  most  of 
them,  long  hosen,  up  to  their  groins,  close  made ;  and  above 
their  groins  to  their  waist,  another  leather.  They  were 
altogether  like  the  Irish  trousers." 

With  them  "  they  brought  three  or  four  skins."  It  was 
Sunday,  however;  and  Sunday  was  no  day  for  trucking. 
It  will  surprise  many,  whose  one  idea  of  the  Pilgrims  is  of 
their  uncompromising  conformity  to  the  letter  which  killeth, 
to  know  that,  while  they  would  not  buy  nor  sell  on  the  Lord's 
Day,  they  were  sufficiently  liberal  to  meet  the  obligations  of 
a  sympathetic  and  open-handed  hospitality.  "  We  gave 
them  entertainment  as  we  thought  was  fitting  them.  They 
did  eat  liberally  of  our  English  victuals.  They  made 
semblance  unto  us  of  friendship  and  amity.  They  sang  and 
danced  after  their  manner,  like  antics."  As  soon  as  possi- 
ble, these  visitors  whose  coming  was  so  inopportune  were 
sent  away.  On  going,  the  "  five  other  tall,  proper  men  " 
left  the  few  skins  they  brought  —  showing  thus  their  confi- 
dence in  the  new  neighbors,  and  "  promised  within  a  night 
or  two  "  to  visit  them  again  and  add  to  the  stock  of  skins 


THE    PILGRIMS  297 

for  barter.  It  ought  to  be  said  that  they  were  not  allowed 
to  go  away  empty.  "  The  Sabbath  Day,  when  we  sent  them 
from  us,  we  gave  every  one  of  them  some  trifles,  especially 
the  principal  of  them."  It  ought  also  to  be  said  that  this 
delegation  brought  back  the  tools  which  had  been  taken 
from  the  woods  where  Standish  and  Cooke  had  carelessly 
left  them.  It  was  to  the  credit  of  the  Indians  to  do  this, 
as  it  was  to  the  credit  of  the  Pilgrims  to  pay  for  the  corn 
which  they  had  taken. 

Samoset,  however,  was  not  so   easily  bowed  out.     He 
"  either  was  sick,  or  feigned  himself  so ;  and  would  not  go 

with  them,  and  stayed  with  us  till  Wednesday 
Samoset  morning."     Then  he  was  sent  to  ascertain  the 

not  easily  reason  why  his  associates  had  not  kept  their 
bowed  out      WOrd  and  returned.    He  must  have  gone  in  the 

best  of  humor;  for  on  his  departure  these 
shrewd  diplomatists  put  him  under  fresh  bonds  of  gratitude 
by  giving  him  "  a  hat,  a  pair  of  stockings  and  shoes,  and  a 
piece  of  cloth  to  be  about  his  waist." 

The  Pilgrims  never  had  to  wait  long  for  Samoset.     A 
friend  from  the  beginning,  after  his  first  introduction  to 

their  "  English  victuals,"  he  was  always  a 
Samoset  prompt  messenger.     Sent  away  on  Wednesday, 

brings  he  was  back  on  Thursday.     This  time  he  was 

Squanto  accompanied    by    an    exceedingly    interesting 

and  companion,   and  he   bore   important   tidings. 

Massasoit       Along  with  three  others  he  brought  Squanto, 

and  announced  that  Massasoit,  the  chief  of  the 
Indians  who  were  nearest  to  them,  was  close  by  and  awaited 
an  interview. 

VI 

This  Squanto  was  the  only  known  survivor  of  the  Patuxet 
tribe.     He  had  been  one  of  the  unhappy,  and  yet  in  every 
way  fortunate  victims  of  the  vile  treachery  of 
Squanto  an  English  sea-captain.     The  despicable  plot- 

ter of  this  wicked  scheme  was  Captain  Thomas 
Hunt,  and  in  explanation  of  the  hostility  of  the  Nausites, 
the   shameless    transaction   has    already   been    recounted. 


298  THE    PILGRIMS 

Bradford,  in  "  Mourt's  Relation,"  tells  the  story  briefly, 
but  he  puts  upon  it  the  stamp  of  his  righteous  indignation. 
He  "  deceived  the  people,  and  got  them  under  color  of 
trucking  with  them,  twenty  out  of  this  very  place  where  we 
inhabit,  and  seven  from  the  Nausites,  and  carried  them 
away,  and  sold  them  for  slaves  for  twenty  pounds  a  man, 
like  a  wretched  man  that  cares  not  what  mischief  he  does  for 
his  profit." 

Squanto  fell  into  good  hands.  Though  transported  to 
Spain  and  there  bartered  for  gold,  he  found  his  way  after 
a  while  to  London.  During  the  six  years  before  the  Pil- 
grims set  foot  on  Plymouth  Rock,  he  was  in  close  associa- 
tion with  the  English.  He  learned  their  language,  became 
accustomed  to  their  manners  and  ways,  and  acquired  the 
preparation  needed  for  the  special  service  he  was  to  render 
in  the  later  period  of  his  life.  For  three  years  he  is  said 
to  have  had  a  home  with  Gorges.  This  is  more  than  proba- 
ble; for  the  relation  which  Gorges  had  with  colonization 
in  the  New  World,  and  the  interest  he  had  in  getting  all  the 
information  he  could  about  the  country  and  the  people, 
would  naturally  lead  him  to  shelter  and  aid  any  Indian 
who  might  be  of  assistance  to  him  in  the  future.  He  is 
known  to  have  taken  three  of  the  five  natives,  whom  Captain 
George  Weymouth  carried  back  with  him  in  the  Archangel 
when  he  returned  from  his  trading  and  exploring  voyage 
to  the  northern  coast  of  New  England  in  1605.  One  dis- 
tinguished writer  thinks  Squanto  may  have  been  one  of 
these  three ;  but  this  is  not  likely.  In  so  simple  and  recent 
a  matter  Bradford  and  his  associates  could  not  easily  have 
been  deceived. 

Whatever  there  may  be  of  a  merely  conjectured  nature  in 
the  record,  however,  it  is  certain  that  our  Indian  was 
brought  back  to  America  in  one  of  Gorges'  ships,  which  was 
then  in  command  of  Captain  Dermer.  Meantime  Squanto 
had  spent  a  good  portion  of  his  sojourn  in  London  with 
John  Slaney,  a  merchant  of  some  distinction  evidently,  and 
the  treasurer  of  the  Newfoundland  Company.  Connected  as 
he  was  with  both  Gorges  and  Slaney,  it  is  possible  that  this 
captive  may  have  had  more  than  one  round  trip  across  the 
Atlantic.    At  any  rate,  he  was  in  circumstances  from  the 


THE    PILGRIMS  299 

hour  in  which  he  was  kidnapped  to  the  hour  of  his  release 
to  learn  fast  the  lessons  which  the  Overruling  One  had  to 
teach  him  in  order  that  he  might  do  successfully  his  ap- 
pointed work. 

There  can  be  no  justification  of  a  crime  like  this  of 
which  Squanto  was  the  victim ;  but,  as  in  the  case  of  Joseph, 
the  sale  of  this  helpless  Indian  into  bondage  was  an  act  of 
wickedness  which  God  turned  about  for  good.  He  maketh 
the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  him.  He  was  a  friend  God- 
sent  to  a  God-sent  people,  to  be  language  to  them  when  they 
could  not  make  their  own  language  understood,  and  to  be 
hands  to  them  in  the  performance  of  tasks  to  which  their 
own  hands  were  not  trained,  and  to  be  their  shelter  and 
defense  in  many  an  emergency  when  misunderstandings  had 
clouded  the  sky,  and  storms  of  anger  were  threatening  to 
break  upon  them. 

Bradford's  testimony  concerning  the  value  of  Squanto  to 
the  colony  is  simple  and  touching.  "  He  was  their  inter- 
preter, and  was  a  special  instrument  sent  of  God  for  their 
good  beyond  their  expectations.  He  directed  them  how  to 
set  their  corn,  when  to  take  fish,  and  to  procure  other  com- 
modities, and  was  also  their  pilot  to  bring  them  to  unknown 
places  for  their  profit  and  never  left  them  till  he  died." 

He  was  far  from  perfect.  He  had  not  a  little  of  the 
personal  ambition  and  not  a  few  of  the  weaknesses  which 
characterize  his  race.  The  increasing  consciousness  of  his 
importance  to  the  English  settlers  turned  his  head,  and 
he  hatched  a  plot  which  was  unworthy  of  him  and  might 
have  been,  if  successfully  executed,  most  mischievous.  Of 
this  there  will  be  more  to  say  in  another  paragraph.  When 
there  were  ends  to  be  gained  by  exaggeration  or  by  adroitly 
concealing  facts,  straightforward  truth-telling  was  not  one 
of  his  burning  passions. 

But  Bradford  knew  his  worth,  and  though  he  did  not 
justify  him  in  his  scheme  to  supplant  Massasoit  by  stirring 
up  jealousy  and  strife  between  him  and  the  Pilgrims,  he 
continued  to  use  him  to  the  last.  The  end  came  in  the  late 
autumn  of  the  second  year  after  the  settlement  at  Plymouth, 
at  Monomoy,  or  what  is  now  Chatham,  when  he  was  acting 
as  pilot  and  interpreter  on  board  the  Swan  on  a  trading 


300  THE    PILGRIMS 

expedition  to  the  south  side  of  Cape  Cod.  The  governor 
nursed  him  tenderly,  and  when  he  was  gone,  briefly  told  the 
story  and  paid  to  him  this  undying  tribute :  "  At  this  place 
Squanto  fell  sick  of  an  Indian  fever,  bleeding  much  at 
the  nose  —  which  the  Indians  took  for  a  symptom  of  death 
—  and  within  a  few  days  died  there ;  desiring  the  Governor 
to  pray  for  him,  that  he  might  go  to  the  Englishman's  God 
in  heaven,  and  bequeathed  sundry  of  his  things  to  sundry  of 
his  English  friends,  as  remembrances  of  his  love ;  of  whom 
they  had  a  great  loss."  Verily,  none  knew  this  better  nor 
appreciated  it  more  keenly  than  Bradford. 


VII 

Massasoit  was  a  man  who  was  to  mean  much  to  the 
Pilgrims.     His  attitude  was  a  hinge  on  which  important 

events  were  to  turn.  At  the  time  of  his  intro- 
Massasoit       duction  to  the  colonists  he  was  at  the  head  of 

the  Pokanoket  tribes;  and  his  official  home 
was  at  Sowams,  or  what  is  now  the  town  of  Warren,  Rhode 
Island,  on  Narragansett  Bay.  His  own  tribe  was  the 
Wampanoag.  The  Patuxets  were  of  this  confederacy ;  but, 
as  we  have  seen,  they  had  been  wiped  out  by  the  plague. 
There  were  eleven  tribes,  and  some  scattered  bands  here  and 
there,  still  remaining  under  his  authority;  and  according 
to  Cushman  they  were  popularly  supposed  to  be  "  the  most 
cruel  and  treacherous  people  in  all  those  parts,  even  like 
lions.', 

On  this  first  visit  to  his  new  neighbors,  Massasoit  was 
accompanied   by   a   little   army   of   sixty   warriors.      His 

brother,  Quadequina,  and  other  members  of  his 
First  visit  cabinet,  were  also  with  him.  The  occasion 
to  Pil-  called  for  the  exercise  of  all  the  wit  the  Pil- 

grims grims  possessed;    but  they  were  equal  to  the 

occasion.  They  were  not  without  grave  sus- 
picions ;  still  they  put  on  a  bold  front  and  faced  the  situa- 
tion with  a  resolute  daring.  There  were  suspicions  on  the 
other  side,  and  a  cautious  feeling  of  the  way ;  but  at  length 
the  fears  of  both  parties  were  sufficiently  allayed  to  permit 


THE    PILGRIMS  301 

of  their  approach  to  each  other.  There  was  a  good  deal  of 
formality  in  the  proceeding,  for  high  dignitaries  were  to 
meet ;  the  chief  of  a  commonwealth  of  white  men  with  his 
staff,  and  the  chief  of  a  confederacy  of  red  men  with  his 
train  of  advisers  and  followers. 

It  was  an  hour  after  Massasoit's  presence  in  the  vicinity 
was  announced  before  he  appeared  on  Watson's  Hill,  which 
was  across  the  brook  from  where  the  Pilgrims  were  holding 
their  deliberations.  Through  Squanto  he  made  it  known 
that  he  wanted  a  messenger  sent  to  him.  Winslow,  the  man 
for  the  hour  when  skill  in  diplomacy  was  required,  and 
especially  for  an  hour  like  this  when  not  only  diplomatic 
skill  but  a  high  degree  of  courage  was  needed,  went  over 
to  him.  He  bore  gifts,  and  gifts  in  this  modern  instance 
were  not  grounds  of  distrust,  but  tokens  of  friendship. 
After  two  or  three  hours  of  eating  and  parleying,  it  was 
decided  that  Winslow  should  remain  as  a  hostage,  while 
Massasoit  under  escort  of  a  score  of  his  faithful  warriors 
should  pass  over  to  the  rendezvous  of  the  Pilgrims.  He 
was  met  at  the  ravine  by  Standish  and  Allerton  and  six 
others  bearing  arms,  and  properly  saluted  and  conducted 
into  the  presence  of  Governor  Carver.  The  high  officials 
kissed  each  others  hands;  and  then  all  concerned  in  this 
interview  fell  to  eating  and  drinking.  The  "  strong 
water "  which  these  exiles  had  brought  with  them  was 
manifestly  of  high  proof;  and  Massasoit  was  exceedingly 
fond  of  it.  On  this  occasion  he  is  said  to  have  "  drank  a 
great  draught,  that  made  him  sweat  all  the  while  after." 

The  outcome  of  this  conference  was  a  treaty  of  amity 
which  remained  in  force  till  long  after  the  framers  of  it 
were  in  their  graves.  The  terms  of  this  treaty 
A  treaty  are  drawn  out  in  full  by  Bradford,  and  pub- 
formed  Hshed  in  his  "  History."  It  is  enough  to  say 
of  these  terms  that  they  are  fair  and  open,  and 
mutual  in  the  obligations  and  duties  which  they  impose,  and 
constitute  a  genuine  compact  of  peace. 

In  commenting  on  the  agreement,  Goodwin,  in  his  "  Pil- 
grim Republic,"  makes  this  fine  point :  "  Voltaire  says  of 
William  Penn's  treaty  — '  It  was  the  only  one  ever  con- 
cluded between  savages  and  Christians  that  was  not  ratified 


302  THE    PILGRIMS 

with  an  oath,  and  the  only  one  that  was  never  broken ! 9 
Yet  here  was  such  a  treaty,  and  made  long  before  Penn's 
birth,  and  it  was  ratified  by  no  oath,  nor  was  it  broken 
during  the  lifetime  of  any  of  the  contracting  parties." 

It  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  the  value  of  this 
alliance  to  the  Pilgrims.    Massasoit  found  his  account  in  it 

in  the  increased  defense  it  would  afford  him 
Treaty  of  against  his  old-time  and  bitter  enemies  —  the 
great  Narragansetts.     To  Carver  and  his  associates 

value  ^  brought  the  prospect,  and  what  in  the  issue 

proved  to  be  the  assurance,  of  peace,  with  their 
nearest  savage  neighbors ;  and  thus  gave  them  the  priceless 
opportunity,  with  the  least  likelihood  of  molestation,  to 
secure  a  permanent  footing  in  the  land,  to  go  and  come 
without  fear  of  ambuscades,  to  sow  and  reap  their  fields, 
to  carry  on  their  trade,  and  to  plant  their  homes  and 
develop  their  institutions. 


vni 

In  the  midsummer  of  the  year  in  which  this  treaty  was 
drawn  up  and  ratified,  it  seemed  good  to  the  Pilgrims,  in 
order  to  show  their  confidence,  express  their 
Deputation     friendship,  and  at  the  same  time  get  in  a  little 
visits  stroke  of  important  business,  to  send  a  deputa- 

Massasoit       ^ion  to  Massasoit.    Winslow  and  Hopkins  were 
named   for  this   duty.      Squanto  went   along 
to  act  as  guide  and  interpreter.    It  took  the  better  part  of 
two  days  to  reach  Sowams,  which  was  forty  miles  away. 

The  discomforts  on  the  route  and  after  arriving  at  their 
destination,  were  not  a  few.    Food  was  scant.    Indeed,  the 
larder  of  this  head  of  a  powerful  confederacy 
Serious  was  entirely  empty,  and  these  hungry  ambassa- 

discomf orts  <jors  had  to  go  to  bed  without  supper.  But  the 
sleeping  accommodations  were  of  the  nerve- 
trying  order,  especially  at  the  grand  sachem's.  As  the  nar- 
rative has  it :  "  He  laid  us  on  the  bed  with  himself  and  his 
wife  —  they  at  one  end,  and  we  at  the  other ;  it  being 
only  planks  laid  a  foot  from  the  ground,  and  a  thin  mat 


THE    PILGRIMS  803 

upon  them.  Two  more  of  his  chief  men,  for  want  of  room, 
pressed  by  and  upon  us ;  so  that  we  were  worse  weary  of 
our  lodgings  than  of  our  journey." 

However,  the  object  of  the  visit  was  attained.  The  pres- 
ents sent  were  gratefully  received,  the  favors  sought  were 
cheerfully  granted,  and  the  bonds  of  friendship 
Good  ac-  between  the  Pilgrims  and  the  Pokanokets  were 
complished  greatly  strengthened.  Massasoit  was  informed 
that  he  himself  and  any  friends  he  might  send 
to  them  would  always  be  welcome  guests  at  Plymouth ;  but 
in  diplomatic  language  he  was  told  that  he  must  restrain 
his  people  from  nocking  to  them  in  such  throngs  as  they 
had  been  doing  lately.  Their  supplies,  they  feared,  were 
not  equal  to  this  drain.  Hearty  assent  was  given  to  the 
request.  The  chief  also  promised  to  encourage  trade,  and 
to  ascertain  the  names  of  the  owners  of  the  corn  which  the 
Pilgrims  had  taken  at  Cape  Cod  that  they  might  be  paid. 
This,  as  we  have  seen,  was  done.  After  spending  a  night 
and  a  day  and  another  night  with  the  sachem,  with  only 
a  single  meal,  made  from  two  fish,  in  which  forty  persons 
shared,  the  hungry,  sleepy,  and  tired  embassy  set  out  for 
home. 

It  is  no  wonder  there  was  impatience  to  be  off.  For  here 
are  a  few  more  strokes  of  rather  vivid  coloring  painted  into 
the  picture  of  their  nights.  "  Very  importunate  he  was  to 
have  us  stay  with  him  longer;  but  we  desired  to  keep  the 
Sabbath  at  home ;  and  feared  we  should  be  lightheaded  for 
want  of  sleep.  For  what  with  bad  lodging,  the  savages' 
barbarous  singing,  for  they  use  to  sing  themselves  to 
sleep ;  lice  and  fleas  within  doors,  and  mosquitos  without, 
we  could  hardly  sleep  all  the  time  of  our  being  there.  We 
much  feared  that  if  we  should  stay  any  longer,  we  should 
not  be  able  to  recover  home  for  want  of  strength." 

They  reached  the  plantation  Saturday  night.  Many  of 
their  experiences  were  trying;  but  they  had  done  a  good 
bit  of  work.  They  had  cemented  the  ties  of  friendship,  and 
they  had  learned  much  by  personal  observation  concerning 
the  country  adjacent  to  their  settlement. 

This  visit  to  Massasoit  at  his  official  seat  in  Sowams,  or 
Warren,  had  to  be  followed  very  soon  by  an  expedition  to 


304  THE    PILGRIMS 

Nauset,  or  Eastham.  A  boy  by  the  name  of  Billington, 
John  Billington,  Jr.,  one  of  a  scapegrace  family  which 

had  somehow  been  foisted  upon  the  Pilgrims 
The  Bil-  at  Southampton,  had  strayed  away  into  the 

lington  boy  WOods  and  been  lost.  He  wandered  up  and 
lost  and  down  for  five  days.     It  was  in  the  middle  of 

found  the  warm  season,  and  he  could  live  on  berries, 

and  without  harm  sleep  out  in  the  open  air  or 
under  the  shelter  of  the  trees.  At  length  he  came  out  at  an 
Indian  settlement,  and  through  Massasoit's  runners  it  was 
learned  that  the  lost  boy  was  at  Nauset.  This  was  a  piece 
of  rather  startling  intelligence ;  for  while  it  was  a  relief  to 
learn  that  the  lad  was  still  alive,  it  was  in  the  nature  of  a 
challenge  to  discover  that  he  was  in  the  hands  of  the  tribe 
which  was  so  deeply  incensed  against  the  whites,  and  with 
whom  they  had  had  their  first  trial  at  arms.  A  party  of  ten 
were  designated  to  go  and  bring  the  boy  back.  The  men 
were  well  armed,  and  no  doubt  abundantly  cautioned.  In 
any  event  it  was  a  delicate,  and  it  might  be  a  difficult,  mis- 
sion on  which  they  were  sent.  But  all  went  well.  The  boy 
was  secured  and  brought  back.  Some  who  were  still  cher- 
ishing the  old  wrath  were  mollified.  The  owners  of  the  corn 
taken  on  the  first  exploring  expedition  were  found,  and 
arrangements  made  with  them  for  satisfactory  payment. 
On  the  whole  the  incident  was  turned  to  good  account,  and 
the  Pilgrims  were  put  on  a  better  footing  with  the  Nausites 
than  they  had  been  before. 

IX 

Difficulties,  one  after  another,  were  met  and  mastered. 
Still  the  succession  of  difficulties  seemed  to  be  endless.  Each 

new  day  brought  its  allotment  of  trial.  There 
Startling  was  always  some  exigency  at  hand,  some  press- 
rumors  jng  problem  for  these  perplexed  and  sorely 

burdened  Pilgrims  to  solve.  While  on  the 
search  for  the  lost  boy,  the  rescuers  heard  the  rumor  that 
Massasoit  had  been  taken  by  his  old  enemies  and  was  then 
held  in  captivity  by  the  Narragansetts.  There  was  also 
a  whisper  in  the  air  to  the  effect  that  Squanto  had  been 


THE    PILGRIMS  305 

betrayed  and  killed.  There  was  no  truth  in  the  report  of 
the  capture  of  Massasoit ;  though  it  was  true  that  he  had 
been  "  put  from  his  country ;  "  or  crowded  out  of  territory 
which  hitherto  had  been  supposed  to  belong  to  him  and  his 
tribes.  Nevertheless,  the  floating  hint  of  peril  to  the 
colonists  was  far  from  groundless. 

Corbitant,  a  sachem  under  Massasoit  and  chief  of  the 
Pocasset  tribe,  was  opposed  to  the  treaty  which  had  been 
entered    into    between    the    Pilgrims    and   the 
Enmity  Pokanoket    Confederacy,    and    he    not    only 

and  plots  desired  but  intrigued  to  break  it  up.  The  re- 
of  Cor-  moval  of  misunderstandings,  and  the  strength- 

bitant  ening   of   the    alliance   which   had   just   been 

brought  about  between  the  Plymouth  settlers 
and  the  Nausites,  angered  him  still  more.  He  saw  his  own 
influence  waning,  and  he  openly  avowed  his  dissatisfaction 
with  his  chief,  and  began  to  do  his  best  to  excite  prejudice 
against  him.  Very  naturally  he  was  suspected  of  having 
formed  a  secret  compact  with  the  Narragansetts.  If  so, 
the  conspiracy  was  a  dangerous  one.  By  overt  acts  he  soon 
made  his  real  attitude  known.  Squanto  and  Hobomak,  on 
the  breaking  out  of  these  startling  rumors,  were  sent  to 
Namasket,  now  Middleborough,  to  ascertain  how  much  fire 
there  might  be  underneath  all  the  smoke. 

This  Hobomak  was  one  of  Massasoit's  leading  men.  He 
had  recently  joined  himself  to  the  little  company  of  white 
people  on  the  coast.  With  these  new-found 
Hobomak  friends  he  remained  in  the  bonds  of  an  unflinch- 
ing loyalty  and  helpfulness  down  to  the  end  of 
a  long  life.  If  there  were  temptations  to  which  others 
yielded,  this  man  was  always  true. 

The  mention  of  Hobomak,   and  of  his  service  to  the 
Pilgrims,  affords  an  opportunity  to  speak  more  fully  of 

the  plot  hatched  by  Squanto,  to  which  refer- 
Squanto's       ence  was  made  a  jittle  back      Thege  twQ  j^ 

double  dians   were   invaluable   aids   to   the   colonists, 

dealing  For    a    jong    time    they    stoo(j    together    an(j 

worked  together  most  amicably,  but  at  length 
they  came  to  the  parting  of  the  ways.  Squanto  conceived 
the  scheme  of  discrediting  Massassoit  in  the  estimation  and 

20 


306  THE    PILGRIMS 

confidence  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  thereby  advancing  his  own 
standing  with  them.  Hobomak  saw  through  his  tricks, 
and  did  not  hesitate  to  make  known  his  suspicions. 

A  suggested  trip  to  Boston  Harbor,  in  March  of  the 
second  year  at  Plymouth,  in  search  of  food,  brought  the 
ambitious  intrigues  to  light.  Standish  was  to  go  on  this 
expedition,  accompanied  by  ten  men  and  these  two  In- 
dians. "  About  the  beginning  of  April "  he  actually 
started.  Hobomak  was  ill  at  ease,  and  advised  against  it. 
Judging  from  mysterious  movements  which  he  had  seen 
in  Squanto,  he  was  led  to  fear  that  the  Massachusetts 
tribes  were  in  league  with  the  Narragansetts,  and  in  the 
absence  of  Standish  and  his  forces  would  fall  on  the  settle- 
ment and  wipe  it  out.  This  fear  he  disclosed  to  the  cap- 
tain and  others.  Still  the  expedition  started  to  go  by  water 
to  their  destination. 

While  Standish  was  still  in  the  home  harbor,  detained 
there  by  lack  of  wind,  he  heard  the  alarm  guns  sounding 
out  from  the  fort,  and  came  back.  The  occasion  of  the 
alarm  was  "  an  Indian  belonging  to  Squanto's  family,"  who 
"  came  running  in  seeming  great  fear,  and  told  them  that 
many  of  the  Narragansetts,  with  Corbitant,  and  he  thought 
also  Massasoit,  were  coming  against  them;  and  he  got 
away  to  tell  them,  not  without  danger."  Hobomak  refused 
to  credit  the  story,  and  avowed  an  unshaken  confidence  in 
the  loyalty  of  Massasoit.  On  investigation  his  faith  was 
found  to  be  justified.  The  trick  was  anything  but  a  cun- 
ning one  by  which  Squanto  expected  to  promote  his  own 
interests.  From  this,  "  and  other  things  of  like  nature," 
the  Pilgrims  "  began  to  see  that  Squanto  sought  his  own 
ends,  and  played  his  own  game,  by  putting  the  Indians  in 
fear,  and  drawing  gifts  from  them  to  enrich  himself,  mak- 
ing them  believe  he  could  stir  up  war  against  whom  he 
would,  and  make  peace  for  whom  he  would."  His  real  aim 
was  to  make  the  Indians  think  more  of  him  than  of  Mas- 
sasoit, and  to  fill  the  minds  of  the  English  with  the  same 
idea.  What  he  secured  was  the  exposure  of  his  own  duplic- 
ity, the  distrust  of  the  English,  and  the  everlasting  hate 
of  Massasoit.  Had  it  been  possible  for  the  enraged  chief 
to  lay  hands  on  him,  he  would  have  made  quick  work  with 


THE    PILGRIMS  307 

our  helpful  Squanto.  For  in  spite  of  all  his  faults  of  double 
dealing,  this  lone  Indian,  this  solitary  remnant  of  a  stricken 
tribe,  was  of  great  service  to  the  Pilgrims.  While  he  lacked 
the  highmindedness  and  sterling  integrity  of  Hobomak,  he 
had  qualities  which  Bradford  and  his  associates  knew  well 
how  to  utilize  for  the  benefit  of  the  colony.  It  is  difficult 
to  see  how  these  first  settlers,  with  all  their  faith  and  fore- 
sight and  courage,  could  have  got  on  without  the  aid  of 
these  two  men  —  Squanto  and  Hobomak. 

Returning  now  to  the  enmity  and  plots  of  Corbitant,  it 
is  to  be  said  that  both  of  these  allies  and  agents  of  the 
Pilgrims  were  seized  by  Corbitant  and  threat- 
Squanto  ened  with  instant  death.     For  some  reason  the 

and  Hobo-  threat  was  not  carried  out  on  Squanto,  though 
mak  seized  a  knife  held  in  the  chief's  hands  was  brandished 
about  his  bosom,  and  his  death  was  widely  her- 
alded. Hobomak,  "  being  a  strong  and  stout  man,"  broke 
away  from  his  captors,  "  and  came  to  New  Plymouth  full  of 
fear  and  sorrow  for  Squanto  whom  he  thought  to  be  slain." 

This  created  a  condition  of  things  which  called  for 
prompt  and  drastic  measures.  As  the  governor  and  his 
advisers  well  conceived,  this  was  treatment  "not  fit  to  be 
borne;  for  if  they  should  suffer  their  friends  and  messen- 
gers thus  to  be  wronged,  they  should  have  none  would 
cleave  unto  them,  or  give  them  any  intelligence,  or  do 
them  service  afterwards;  but  next  they  would  fall  upon 
themselves."  Standish  was  put  at  the  head  of  "  fourteen 
men  well  armed,"  or  most  likely  only  "ten,"  as  another 
account  states,  and  ordered  "  to  go  and  fall  upon  them  in 
the  night;  and  if  they  found  that  Squanto  was  killed,  to 
cut  off  Corbitant's  head;  but  not  to  hurt  any  but  those 
that  had  a  hand  in  it."  The  order  was  carried  out.  He 
whom  the  treacherous  sachem  wanted  to  kill  for  the  reason 
that  "  if  he  were  dead  the  English  had  lost  their  tongue," 
was  found  alive  and  restored  to  the  colony.  Corbitant  was 
brought  to  his  knees,  though  he  was  "  shy  to  come  near 
them  a  long  while  after."  Other  tribes  were  impressed  by 
the  quick  and  vigorous  action  of  the  whites  in  ferreting 
out  and  punishing  conspiracy,  and  hastened  to  enter  into 
treaty  alliances  with  them. 


308  THE    PILGRIMS 

Two  or  three  of  the  Indians  who  were  hurt  in  the  night 
raid  made  on  their  village  —  hurt  because  they  refused 
to  keep  out  of  the  danger  against  which  they  were  warned, 
were  brought  back  to  Plymouth,  and  healed  by  their 
"  Surgeon,"  the  beloved  Samuel  Fuller.  Both  the  sharp 
discipline  and  the  tender  kindness  were  wholesome,  but  the 
end  was  not  yet.  There  would  be  need  of  further  discipline, 
as  well  as  the  ministry  of  much  more  kindness,  before  peace 
could  be  established  on  a  firm  and  enduring  basis. 


The  year  was  drawing  to  a  close.  It  had  been  marked, 
as  we  have  seen,  by  much  intercourse  between  the  Pilgrims 
and  the  Indians,  and  by  substantial  progress 
Massasoit  m  amjcable  relations.  There  was  to  be  one 
and  others  other  notable  meeting.  In  the  midsummer,  it 
invited  to  ^^q  be  remembered,  Winslow  and  Hopkins, 
visit  colony  uninvited,  visited  Massasoit  at  his  official  resi- 
dence in  Sowams.  The  visit  was  attended  with 
a  good  deal  of  personal  discomfort,  but  the  results  of  it 
were  excellent.  Would  it  not  promote  mutual  good  feeling 
and  confidence,  and  cement  friendship  between  the  two  par- 
ties still  more  closely,  to  repeat  on  a  large  scale,  and  at  the 
seat  of  the  colony,  this  free  social  intercourse?  Evidently 
Bradford  and  his  associates  so  thought.  An  invitation 
was  extended  to  the  head  of  the  Pokanokets,  and  such  of 
his  followers  as  he  might  deem  it  advisable  to  bring  with 
him,  to  visit  Plymouth.  Massasoit  and  ninety  of  his  braves 
accepted  the  invitation. 

On  more  than  one  account  the  occasion  was  memorable. 
It  was  a  harvest  festival.  It  was  a  glad  outpouring  of 
gratitude  to  God  for  the  mercies  with  which 
A  harvest  ne  na(j  crowned  the  year,  and  the  beginning 
festival  0f  our  Thanksgiving  Days  —  the  days  whose 

observance  at  first  and  for  a  long  time  after 
their  inauguration,  was  confined  to  New  England,  but 
which  has  now  become  a  recognized  and  established  custom 
of  the  nation.     Since  that  awful  assault  upon  their  ranks 


THE    PILGRIMS  309 

by  disease  and  death  back  in  the  early  months  of  their 
settlement,  things  had  gone  well  with  the  Pilgrims.  Good 
health  had  waited  on  the  survivors  of  the  stricken  com- 
pany. From  the  twenty  acres  which  they  planted  they 
"  had  a  good  increase  of  Indian  corn."  Their  peas  came 
to  nothing,  but  their  barley  turned  out  well.  Seven 
dwelling-houses  had  been  erected,  and  four  buildings  had 
been  put  up  for  use  in  common  by  the  settlers.  There  was 
material  in  hand  and  preparation  made  for  the  rearing  of 
other  homes.  Men,  loyal  as  these  men  were  to  him  who  is 
the  Giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift,  and  whose  piety 
was  marked  by  devoutness  as  well  as  a  vigorous  righteous- 
ness, could  not  contemplate  this  measure  of  success  and 
these  tokens  of  loving  care  without  exclaiming  as  they  did : 
"  God  be  praised." 

This   is   Winslow's   account  of  the  way   in   which   our 
Thanksgiving  Days  started,  and  his  recital  of  the  form 

of  the  first  proclamation  which  was  issued  for 
Winslow's  the  general  observance  of  a  thanksgiving  sea- 
account  of  SOI1)  an(j  the  preparation  which  was  made 
the  first  {n  order  that  the  observance  might  have  in  it 
Thanks-  the  proper  measure  of  gladness :  "  Our  har^ 
giving  vest  being  gotten  in,  our  Governor  sent  four 

men  on  fowling  that  so  we  might,  after  a  more 
special  manner,  rejoice  together,  after  we  had  gathered  the 
fruits  of  our  labors.  They  four,  in  one  day,  killed  as  much 
fowl  as,  with  a  little  help  besides,  served  the  Company 
almost  a  week."  This  coming  together  was  made  an  oc- 
casion, not  only  for  the  sincere  and  earnest  recognition 
of  the  providence  which  had  been  over  them,  but  for  feast- 
ing and  resting  and  universal  sports  and  general  enjoy- 
ment, "  at  which  time,  amongst  other  recreations,  we 
exercised  our  arms."  This  was  one  of  their  "  recreations." 
They  had  "  others  "  —  jumping,  running,  wrestling,  shoot- 
ing at  marks,  and  what  not;  but  no  doubt  Standish  had 
an  eye  to  business  when  in  the  presence  of  the  Indians, 
who  were  onlookers  at  all  these  proceedings  and  partici- 
pants in  many  of  them,  he  put  these  sturdy,  but  most 
likely  rather  awkward  Englishmen,  through  the  manual 
of  arms,  and  in  the  various  maneuvers  of  the  drill  showed 


310  THE    PILGRIMS 

with  what  alertness  they  could  pick  off  an  enemy  in  a  real 
fight. 

But  the  fact  in  connection  with  this  thanksgiving  fes- 
tival, which  has  bearing  immediately  on  the  point  under 
review,  was  the  presence  of  these  Indians  — 
The  real  Massasoit  and  almost  a  hundred  of  his  ad- 
advantages  herents.  These  wild  men  of  the  forest  were 
of  this  not;  oniv  present  to  share  in  the  feast  and  the 

gathering  festivities,  but  they  were  serviceable  in  helping 
to  furnish  supplies.  "  And  they  went  out,  and 
killed  five  deer,  which  they  brought  to  the  plantation; 
and  bestowed  on  our  Governor,  and  upon  the  Captain,  and 
others."  Three  days  the  visiting  and  merriment  were  kept 
up.  How  good  it  was  for  these  hard-worked  and  tired 
Pilgrims  to  have  this  respite  from  toil  and  this  season  of 
unbending.  We  may  be  sure  that  the  deepest  note  struck 
in  their  thought  was  profound  gratitude  to  God  for  his 
goodness,  but  everything  was  attuned  to  cheer  and  glad- 
ness. The  Indians  were  made  happy  and  trustful.  A  new 
notch  was  cut  in  the  stick  on  which  were  scored  the  tri- 
umphs of  peace. 

Winslow  follows  up  his  brief  narrative  of  the  coming 
together  of  the  two  races  in  a  glad  fellowship  with  a  tes- 
timony which  is  as  beautiful  as  it  is  simple  and  tender: 
"  We  have  found  the  Indians  very  faithful  in  their  Cove- 
nant of  Peace ;  very  loving  and  ready  to  pleasure  us.  We 
often  go  with  them;  and  they  come  to  us.  Some  of  us 
have  been  fifty  miles  by  land  in  the  country  with  them.  .  .  . 
Yea,  it  hath  pleased  God  so  to  possess  the  Indians  with 
the  fear  of  us,  and  love  unto  us,  that  not  only  the  greatest 
King  amongst  them  —  but  also  all  the  Princes  and  peoples 
round  about  us,  have  either  made  suit  with  us,  or  been  glad 
of  any  occasion  to  make  peace  with  us.  So  that  there  is 
now  great  peace  amongst  the  Indians  themselves,  which 
was  not  formerly;  neither  would  have  been  but  for  us; 
and  we,  for  our  parts,  walk  as  peaceably  and  safely  in  the 
woods  as  in  the  highways  in  England." 

These  words  bear  the  date  of  the  first  anniversary  of  the 
landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth  Rock.  Surely,  these 
triumphs  over  the  prejudices  of  the  Indians,  and  the  terms 


THE    PILGRIMS  311 

of  concord  in  which  they  had  come  to  live  with  them,  were 
marvelous  achievements,  and  with  other  achievements  may 
well  serve  to  make  the  first  year  of  our  Forefathers  on  these 
shores  forever  memorable. 

XI 

But  though  all  had  gone  so  well  in  the  dealings  of  the 
Pilgrims  with  the  Indians,  and  the  outlook  was  so  encour- 
aging, there  were  yet  dark  days  and  bloody 
Clouds  in       doings  ahead.    The  mutual  compact  which  had 
the  sky  been  entered  into,  and  which  had  been  so  fruit- 

ful of  good  results,  embraced  not  all  of  the 
Indians  of  the  region,  but  only  the  Pokanoket  Confederacy, 
of  which  Massasoit  was  the  grand  sachem.  The  Narra- 
gansetts,  the  traditional  enemies  of  the  Pokanokets,  with 
Canonicus  for  their  chief,  had  never  come  into  treaty  rela- 
tions with  the  colonists,  and  were  made  all  the  more 
jealous  and  dangerous  because  such  relations  had  been 
established  with  a  rival  nation.  Some  of  the  outlying 
tribes,  such  as  the  tribes  which  constituted  the  Massachu- 
setts Confederacy,  and  some  of  the  tribes  further  south, 
which  had  a  certain  affiliation  with  the  Pokanokets,  but 
were  never  very  loyal  to  the  Sowams  chief,  had  little  love 
for  the  whites,  and  were  all  too  ready  to  listen  to  warlike 
suggestions  from  the  Narragansetts.  Hence,  while  it  was 
peace  and  fellowship  with  Massasoit  and  those  of  his  people 
who  were  true  to  him,  it  had  to  be  day-and-night  vigilance 
with  other  chiefs  and  tribes,  who  might  at  any  moment  fall 
on  the  new  settlers  and  deal  them  annihilating  blows. 

Grounds  for  apprehension  were  very  soon  in  evidence. 
If  the  first  year  of  residence  at  Plymouth  closed  with 
thanksgiving  and  high  festivities,  the  second 
A  quiver  year  opened  with  threats  and  ominous  signs 
of  arrows  0f  peril.  Canonicus,  the  head  of  the  Narra- 
f ro  m  Canon-  gansetts,  sent  to  the  Pilgrims  a  quiver  of  ar- 
icus  rows  fastened  with  the  skin  of  a  rattlesnake. 

It  was  an  open  challenge  to  war,  but  it  brought 
no  pallor  to  the  cheeks  of  the  Pilgrims.  Bradford  filled 
the  skin  with  powder  and  balls,  and  sent  it  back  with  an 


312  THE    PILGRIMS 

accompanying  message  to  the  effect  that,  if  the  sagamore 
and  his  forces  wished  to  try  conclusions  in  battle  the  Ply- 
mouth settlers  would  be  found  ready  to  meet  them.  The 
strange  package,  which  was  returned  unopened,  and  the 
resolute  reply,  filled  Canonicus  with  alarm,  and  war  for 
the  time  was  averted.  The  threat,  however,  was  not  with- 
out its  value  to  the  colonists.  The  fighting  contingent 
was  immediately  reorganized,  and  put  on  a  more  efficient 
basis,  and  the  settlement  was  placed  in  a  better  posture 
of  defense ;  and  a  sharper  eye  was  kept  on  the  movements 
of  suspected  persons. 

Still,  though  this  attempt  to  intimidate  the  Pilgrims  had 
miscarried,  intrigues  and  conspiracies  were  in  progress. 
The  second  year  ended  without  an  open  outbreak,  but  near 
the  beginning  of  the  third  year  plots  had  thickened,  and 
the  gin  which  had  been  set  by  the  fowler  was  ready  for 
its  prey. 

XII 

A  large  share  of  the  guilt,  however,  lies  at  the  door  of 
Weston's  colony  which  had  been  planted  at  Wessagusset, 

now  Weymouth.  Weston  himself,  as  the  Pil- 
Weston's  grims  had  early  learned  to  their  sorrow,  was  a 
colony  marplot;    and  not  a  few  of  his  followers  were 

lazy  and  disreputable.  By  their  bad  treatment 
of  the  Indians  they  excited  jealousy,  aroused  antagonism, 
and  in  many  ways  added  fuel  to  a  fire  which  a  few  madcaps 
among  the  disaffected  tribes  were  trying  to  kindle  into  a 
flame.  Each  member  of  this  ill-starred  settlement  seems  to 
have  been  a  law  unto  himself ;  and  there  was  little  care  or 
thought  about  any  proper  provision  for  the  future.  Being 
as  reckless  in  conduct  as  they  were  profligate  in  character, 
when  their  food  supplies  ran  low,  they  did  not  hesitate  to 
steal  from  the  Indians,  and  in  other  ways  to  show  their 
utter  disregard  of  the  rights  and  feelings  of  their  'red 
neighbors.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  misdeeds  and  outrages 
of  these  Wessagusset  colonists,  the  Pilgrims  would  not  have 
been  driven  into  a  conflict  which  has  led  moralists  and 
humanitarians  to  shake  their  heads  in  disapproval,  or  at 


THE    PILGRIMS  313 

least  to  follow  the  narrative  with  an  interrogation  mark. 
Wrongs  done  to  the  Indians  engendered  hate;  but  in  the 
weakened  condition  of  the  Weston  colony,  the  Indians  began 
to  look  upon  these  men  with  contempt  and  to  insult  and  mal- 
treat them.  At  length  the  Indians  decided  to  destroy  the 
colony,  and  in  order  that  the  work  of  destruction  might  be 
complete,  to  wipe  out  the  Plymouth  Colony  as  well. 

Knowledge  of  the  conspiracy  came  to  the  Pilgrims 
through  Massasoit.  This  chief  had  not  broken  the  treaty 
made  two  years  before  at  Plymouth.  But 
Conspiracy  through  the  injury  he  had  suffered  in  conse- 
revealed  by  qUence  of  the  misrepresentations  of  Squanto, 
Massasoit  an(j  the  refusal  of  the  head  men  of  the  whites 
to  give  Squanto  up  that  he  might  be  punished, 
the  grand  sachem  had  become  cold  toward  the  Pilgrims, 
and  of  late  had  had  little  intercourse  with  them.  He  had 
refused,  however,  to  lift  his  hand  against  them,  though 
overtures  having  this  treachery  in  view  had  been  made  to 
him.  A  signal  kindness  shown  to  him  in  an  hour  of  need 
by  the  Plymouth  people,  changed  his  feelings  and  brought 
him  back  into  his  old  love  and  loyalty. 

Massasoit  was  very  ill.    A  deputation  was  sent  to  him  to 
express  sympathy  and  to  render  whatever  aid  might  be  pos- 
sible.   This  was  in  accordance  with  both  Indian 
The  Sa-  etiquette,  which  called  for  special  attention  in 

chem's  case  0f  sickness  and  the  kindly  instincts  of  the 

heart  English.     Winslow,  as  might  have  been  taken 

touched  by  for  granted,  headed  the  deputation.  Hobomak 
kindness  was  ^he  interpreter.  The  third  member  of  the 
party  was  "  one  Master  John  Hamden,"  so 
Winslow  informs  us,  "  a  gentleman  of  London,  who  then 
wintered  with  us,  and  desired  much  to  see  the  country." 

Who  was  this  John  Hamden?  Was  he  the  John  Hamp- 
den of  immortal  "  ship-money  "  fame?  So  some  have  con- 
jectured. If  so,  Winslow  had  with  him  on  this  mission  of 
humanity  a  young  man  rising  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  a 
member  of  Parliament  who  had  been  in  his  seat  more  than 
twelve  months,  and  who  had  succeeded  in  coming  to  the 
colony,  as  also  in  getting  away  from  it,  in  a  remarkably 
quiet  way.    The  conjecture  is  not  probable.    At  the  same 


314  THE    PILGRIMS 

time  it  is  evident  this  "  Master  John  Hamden  "  was  a  man 
of  resolution  and  character,  or  he  neither  would  have  wished 
nor  been  permitted  to  share  in  the  hardship  and  possible 
perils  of  this  delicate  mission. 

These  humane  men  were  met  on  the  way  by  conflicting 
rumors.  Some  said  the  chief  was  already  dead ;  others  re- 
ported him  still  alive.  Winslow  and  his  attendants  pushed 
on.  Massasoit  was  not  dead ;  but  he  was  so  near  to  death 
that  his  recovery  seemed  hopeless.  By  the  application  of 
proper  remedies,  and  by  ministries  which  would  have  done 
credit  to  a  trained  nurse,  and  which  were  just  as  trying  as 
any  which  the  trained  nurse  has  to  render,  the  sick  chief 
was  restored. 

The  kindness  moved  his  heart  back  into  the  old  affection 
for  Bradford  and  his  people.  Others  had  been  saying  to 
him  before  the  deputation  arrived  that  these  white  friends 
were  no  friends,  or  they  would  have  visited  him  in  his  sick- 
ness. These  attentions  and  his  recovery  through  them  led 
him  to  exclaim :  "  Now  I  see  the  English  are  my  friends, 
and  love  me ;  and  while  I  live,  I  will  never  forget  the  kindness 
they  have  shewed  me."  In  his  gratitude  he  revealed  to 
Hobomak  the  plots  which  had  been  formed  against  the 
colonists.  The  guide  was  to  tell  Winslow  what  he  had 
heard  from  Massasoit  on  the  way  back  to  Plymouth,  and 
the  Pilgrims  were  to  be  put  on  their  guard.  The  plot  origi- 
nated with  the  Boston  Bay  Indians;  but  five  or  six  other 
tribes  were  in  it.  Further  confirmation  of  this  threatened 
massacre  came  from  another  sachem.  There  were  many 
straws,  too,  which  showed  which  way  the  wind  was  blowing. 

It  could  hardly  have  been  otherwise  than  that  disclosures 
so  startling  should  quicken  the  blood  in  the  veins  of  the 
Pilgrims.  They  were  never  off  watch ;  but  this 
The  Pil-  was  an  alarm  to  set  their  eyes  wide  open, 
grims  After  due  deliberation  on  the  state  of  affairs 

aroused  by  the  governor  and  his  immediate  advisers, 

the  whole  constituency  of  the  people  was  called 
together,  since  the  authorities  had  no  right  "  to  undertake 
war  without  the  consent  of  the  body  of  the  Company ;  "  and 
the  situation  was  explained  to  them.  One  can  feel  the  solemn 
hush  of  the  occasion,  and  realize  in  some  measure  how  seri- 
ous the  outlook  seemed  to  all  the  members  of  that  little 


THE    PILGRIMS  315 

assembly.  They  were  under  the  shadow  of  a  bloody  strug- 
gle. What  was  to  be  the  issue?  Were  they,  one  and  all, 
to  be  the  victims  of  a  treacherous  and  wily  foe  ? 

Winslow  shall  tell  us  how  the  matter  stood  in  the  common 
thought :  "  The  business  was  no  less  troublesome  than  grie- 
vous; and  the  more,  because  it  is  so  ordinary,  in  these 
times,  for  men  to  measure  things  by  the  events  thereof ;  but 
especially  for  that  we  knew  no  means  to  deliver  our  country- 
men and  preserve  ourselves,  than  by  returning  their  mali- 
cious and  cruel  purposes  upon  their  own  heads ;  and 
causing  them  to  fall  into  the  same  pit  they  had  digged 
for  others  —  though  it  much  grieved  us  to  shed  the  blood 
of  those,  whose  good  we  ever  intended  and  aimed  at  as  a 
principle  in  all  our  proceedings." 

The  result  of  the  conference  was  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  consisting  of  Bradford,  Allerton,  and  Standish, 
with  power  to  act.  The  committee  came  to  the 
Blood  must  conclusion  that  blood  must  be  drawn.  The 
be  shed  leaders  in  this  conspiracy  must  be  sought  out 

and  put  to  death.  This  is  what  Massasoit 
said  they  ought  to  do :  "  As  we  respected  the  lives  of  our 
countrymen,  and  our  own  after-safety,  he  advised  us  to  kill 
the  men  of  Massachusetts,  who  were  the  authors  of  this 
intended  mischief."  Hobomak  agreed  with  Massasoit,  and 
"  used  many  arguments  himself  to  move  us  thereto."  True, 
this  was  Indian  counsel  and  not  Christian;  but  it  had 
its  basis  and  warrant  in  the  interest  of  self-preservation 
which  is  common  to  all  men,  whether  pagan  or  Christian, 
savage  or  civilized. 

Following  up  this  conclusion  the  brave  captain  chose 
eight  men,  and  when  all  were  in  readiness,  started  for  the 
Weymouth  settlement.  He  took  no  more  than 
The  sharp  eight  men,  for  fear  that  a  larger  force  would 
and  deadly  excite  suspicion;  since  it  was  a  part  of  his 
conflict  strategy  to  appear  on  coming  to  them  to  be  on 

one  of  his  usual  trading  expeditions.  He  took 
no  less  than  eight  men  for  fear  that  a  smaller  number 
would  not  be  able  to  cope  with  the  foe  he  was  to  meet. 
Having  reached  the  settlement,  and  assured  himself,  as  he 
was  charged  to  do,  by  additional  evidence  that  the  facts 
were  as  they  had  been  represented,  and  warned  the  settlers 


316  THE    PILGRIMS 

of  the  impending  danger,  and  gathered  the  stray  members 
into  places  of  safety,  and  having  waited  for  what  appeared 
to  be  the  best  chance  for  striking  a  telling  blow,  he  gave 
the  word,  and  he  and  his  little  band,  only  three  or  four  of 
the  eight  he  had  brought  with  him,  or  just  man  for  man, 
so  chivalrous  was  he  against  the  foe  with  which  he  was  to 
grapple,  fell  upon  the  arch  conspirators  and  smote  them 
unto  death.  Wituwamat,  "  a  notable  insulting  villian ;  one 
who  had  formerly  imbrued  his  hands  in  the  blood  of  the 
English  and  French  and  had  often  boasted  of  his  own 
valor;  and  derided  their  weakness,  especially  because,  as 
he  said  they  died  crying,  making  sour  faces  more  like 
children  than  men,"  and  Pecksuot  who  bragged  of  his 
prowess  and  taunted  Standish  with  being  "  a  great  Cap- 
tain," but  only  "  a  little  man,"  and  with  whom  in  this  last 
deadly  encounter  the  "  little  man  "  had  measured  strength, 
were  stretched  lifeless  at  the  feet  of  their  assailants.  One 
other  of  the  Indians  was  slain ;  "  and  a  youth  of  some  eigh- 
teen years  of  age,  which  was  brother  to  Wituwamat  and, 
villian-like,  trode  in  his  steps,"  was  captured  and  hung. 
Another  division  of  the  force  killed  two  men.  The  captain 
and  those  with  him  despatched  another  man.  By  this  time, 
the  remaining  braves  took  alarm  and  escaped.  But  seven 
of  them  —  the  two  ringleaders  among  the  seven,  had  paid 
the  penalty  of  their  treachery  and  been  put  where  they  could 
enter  into  no  more  intrigues  and  make  no  more  murder- 
ous attacks.  Standish  and  his  heroic  squad  returned  in 
triumph.  As  ordered  to  do,  the  intrepid  leaders  brought 
back  the  head  of  Wituwamat ;  and  in  accordance  with  Eng- 
lish custom  and  the  spirit  of  the  age,  it  was  set  up  as  a 
gruesome  warning  to  all  conspirators. 

The  falling  upon  the  Indians  and  slaughtering  them  was 
a  sad  business.  It  was  this  sanguine  episode  in  the  experi- 
ence of  the  Pilgrims  which  led  Robinson  from 
A  sad  but  across  the  seas  at  Leyden  to  send  over  the  wish 
justifiable  tnat  the  Pilgrims  might  have  converted  some  of 
ac*  the  Indians  before  killing  any  of  them.     The 

sentiment  was  eminently  creditable  to  his  heart ; 
but  the  criticism  implied  in  it  had  no  justification  in  fact. 
It  is  of  course  possible  that  God  might  have  brought  de- 


THE    PILGRIMS  317 

liverance  from  threatened  perils  in  some  other  way.  If 
there  was  ever  a  body  of  men  who  put  an  intelligent  trust 
in  God,  it  was  these  Pilgrims.  But  while  they  trusted  they 
kept  their  powder  dry;  and  they  had  no  idea  that  God 
would  help  those  who  refused  to  help  themselves. 

Their  lives  and  the  lives  of  their  wives  and  children  were 
in  peril.  The  future  of  their  enterprise  hung  in  the  balance. 
There  was  a  way  to  protect  themselves  and  to  establish 
their  colony  in  security.  They  had  men  in  their  ranks,  who, 
in  skill  and  experience  and  courage,  were  equal  to  the  task, 
and  muskets  and  powder  and  ball  with  which  to  equip  them. 
Not  to  have  done  exactly  what  they  did  would  have  been 
a  reckless  and  cowardly  neglect  of  duty.  These  dauntless 
deliverers  became  a  providence  of  God  to  the  Weymouth 
people  and  saved  them. 

There  were  no  Englishmen  outside  of  themselves  who 
knew  their  sore  straits,  and  no  fellow  colonists  to  come  to 
their  rescue.  There  was  but  one  arm  to  strike  for  them,  and 
that  was  their  own.  They  struck  and  God  gave  the  blow 
the  right  direction  and  energy  to  accomplish  its  purpose. 

The  drastic  dealing  brought  to  an  end  troubles  and  fears 
of  this  sort.  The  discipline  was  severe,  but  it  was  salutary. 
There  were  occasional  alarms,  and  now  and 
The  drastic  then  rather  trying  situations  to  be  met ;  but  no 
treatment  serious  conflicts  for  many  years.  Not  one  of 
salutary  j-ne  original  Pilgrim  band,  man,  woman,  or 
child  lost  his  life  at  the  hands  of  the  Indians. 

There  remained  yet  one  decisive  encounter  to  be  fought 
out  between  red  man  and  white,  savagery  and  civilization, 
the  old  order  of  stagnation  and  death  and  the  new  order  of 
progress  and  life ;  but  this  was  to  be  deferred  till  more  than 
a  half  century  after  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  when  the 
Plymouth  colony  had  become  merged  in  a  confederacy  of 
colonies,  and  the  conflict  was  one  which  involved  all  the 
leading  settlements  of  New  England.  For  these  reasons, 
that  the  deadly  encounter  came  much  later  in  the  life  of  the 
colony,  that  it  was  fought  out  under  circumstances  alto- 
gether different  from  those  in  which  the  preceding  con- 
tests had  been  carried  on,  and  that  it  was  a  unique  event  in 
New  England  history,  it  has  seemed  better  to  defer  the 


318  THE    PILGRIMS 

account  of  it  till  more  of  the  story  of  the  Pilgrims  has  been 
told,  and  then  to  gather  the  facts  relating  to  it,  or  such  of 
them  as  it  seems  advisable  to  relate,  into  a  chapter  by  itself. 

XIII 

In  reviewing  the  attitude  of  the  Pilgrims  toward  the 
Indians,  and  taking  all  the  facts  into  careful  consideration, 
the  impression  becomes  clear  and  positive  that 
The  Pil-  on  the  whole  the  men  of  Plymouth  were  not 
grims  just  on]y  just,  but  remarkably  kind  to  the  native 
and  kind  inhabitants  of  the  land.  It  has  been  perti- 
to  the  nently  said  that  "  when  a  superior  and  an  in- 

Indians  ferior  race  coinhabits,  some  individual  wrongs 

are  inevitable."  All  the  more  might  such  a 
result  be  expected  when  a  civilized  and  a  savage  people 
dwell  in  close  proximity.  Nevertheless,  in  this  instance  the 
forbearance  of  the  stronger  towards  the  weaker  was  re- 
markable. The  disposition,  too,  of  the  stronger  to  be  of 
service  to  the  weaker  is  deserving  of  all  praise. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied,  however,  that  in  the  course  of  the 
years  there  were  one  or  two  breaks  in  this  uniformity  of 

fair  and  kindly  dealing. 
A  few  ex-         y^e  have  seen  that  in  one  instance  the  Pil- 
ceptions  to    grims   took   corn   from  the   Indians,  without 
strict  waiting  to  consult  the  owners,  and  appropri- 

justice  ate(j  [i  to  their  own  use.     This  was  when  they 

were  new  to  the  country,  and  were  ignorant  of 
the  ways  of  the  red  men.  It  was  in  anticipation  of  needs 
which  would  soon  be  pressing,  and  which  they  saw  no  other 
way  to  meet.  It  was  also  done  with  the  full  intention  of 
making  ample  payment  on  the  first  opportunity.  This  they 
did.    All  the  same  the  act  was  wrong. 

In  another  instance,  more  than  fifty  years  later,  the  civil 
authorities  at  Plymouth  violated  the  pledge  made  by  the 
military  authorities  in  the  field,  so  Baylies  affirms,  and  sold 
into  slavery  about  a  hundred  and  sixty  Indians,  who  were 
induced  to  surrender  as  prisoners  of  war  on  the  distinct 
understanding  that  no  harm  was  to  come  to  them  in  conse- 
quence.    They  were  what  were  called  the  Dartmouth  In- 


THE    PILGRIMS  319 

dians.  They  lived  about  Dartmouth.  Though  the  town 
was  destroyed,  these  particular  Indians  had  no  hand  in  it. 
It  was  cruel  and  unjust  to  the  last  degree  to  treat  them  in 
this  way.  Against  treachery  so  rank,  Eels,  the  captain  of 
the  company  who  brought  about  the  surrender,  Church, 
and  others  made  vehement  protest.  The  protest  was  in 
vain.  It  is  true  it  was  the  custom  everywhere  in  those 
days  to  sell  soldiers  taken  in  war  into  slavery;  but  there 
was  no  excuse  for  violating  a  word  of  honor.  The  act 
did  a  double  mischief.  It  turned  the  wavering  Indians  to 
the  wrong  side  of  the  bloody  contest,  and  it  left  an  in- 
delible stain  on  the  fair  page  of  Pilgrim  history. 

After  all,  the  wonder  is  that  there  was  so  little  of  this 
perversion  of  superior  skill  and  power  to  selfish  ends.  In  a 
career  which  covers  more  than  seventy  years,  the  charges 
of  wrong-doing  against  the  Indians  by  the  Pilgrims  nar- 
rows down  to  the  two  instances  just  mentioned.  There  were 
individual  cases  of  bad  treatment;  but  as  a  body  the  Pil- 
grims were  marvelously  patient  with  their  savage  neighbors 
and  tenderly  considerate  of  their  rights  and  interests. 

Before  using  lands  which  were  claimed  by  the  Indians, 
the  Pilgrims  were  careful  to  purchase  them.  There  were  no 
owners  to  the  land  immediately  occupied  by  the 
Bought  Pilgrims.     The  death  of  the  Patuxets  by  the 

their  lands  ravages  0f  the  plague  had  extinguished  titles, 
of  them  But  {n  au  instances  where  there  were  lands 
which  were  desired  by  the  colonists  and  owned 
by  the  Indians,  the  ownership  was  respected.  Speaking  of 
the  acknowledgment  of  right  to  occupy  the  territory  made 
to  them  by  Massasoit,  Cushman,  in  his  "Lawfulness  of  Plan- 
tations," says :  "  Neither  hath  this  been  accomplished  by 
threats  and  blows,  or  shaking  of  sword  and  sound  of  trum- 
pet. For  as  our  faculty  that  way  is  small,  so  our  warring 
with  them  is  after  another  manner,  namely,  by  friendly 
usage,  love,  peace,  honest  and  just  carriages,  good  counsel, 
etc. ;  that  so  we  and  they  may  not  only  live  in  peace  in  the 
land,  and  they  yield  subjection  to  an  earthly  Prince;  but 
that  as  voluntaries  they  may  be  persuaded  at  length  to 
embrace  the  Prince  of  Peace,  Jesus  Christ,  and  rest  in  peace 
with  him  forever."     This  statement  was  made  so  early  in 


320  THE    PILGRIMS 

the  career  of  the  Pilgrims  on  these  shores  that  it  covers  only 
a  short  period  of  their  history.  Still  it  is  true  of  them  all 
the  way  through.  The  spirit  and  policy  here  set  forth 
characterized  the  land-dealings  of  the  Pilgrims  with  the 
natives  from  first  to  last.  Statements  made  by  Hoar, 
Palfrey,  Hall,  and  others,  and  quoted  at  the  head  of  this 
chapter,  abundantly  justify  this  claim. 

Recall  the  testimony  of  Governor  Josiah  Winslow,  son  of 
Governor  Edward  Winslow,  made  at  the  time  of  the  war  with 
Philip,  to  the  effect  that,  in  all  of  their  more  than  fifty  years 
of  dealing  with  them,  the  Plymouth  settlers  did  not  own  a 
foot  of  land,  save  that,  of  course,  which  had  been  abandoned 
and  which  he  did  not  have  in  mind  when  speaking,  which 
they  had  not  obtained  by  honest  purchase  from  the  Indians. 

The  commissioners  sent  out  by  Charles  II  to  examine 
into  the  conditions  and  doings  of  the  colonies,  reported 
that  but  one  complaint  was  made  to  them  at  Plymouth. 
This  was  that  "  the  Governor  would  not  let  a  man  enjoy 
a  farm  of  four  miles  square  which  he  had  bought  of  an 
Indian."  Indeed,  a  law  was  passed  in  restraint  of  sharp 
transactions  of  this  sort  with  the  natives.  Under  this  law 
no  member  of  the  colony  was  permitted  either  to  buy  or 
gratuitously  receive  any  land  from  the  Indians  without 
submitting  the  terms  of  the  trade  to  the  court. 

As  has  been  said,  after  the  death  of  Philip,  lands  which 
he  had  claimed  and  occupied  were  confiscated  and  turned 
over  to  the  uses  of  the  colony  which  had  suffered  so  severely 
by  the  unprovoked  uprising.  That  was  justifiable.  But 
up  to  this  time  all  these  land  transactions  between  the  two 
races  were  marked  with  the  spirit  of  equity,  and  it  was 
sell  and  buy  on  the  basis  of  the  "  square  deal  "  which  char- 
acterizes all  other  honest  sellers  and  buyers. 

The  same  temper  of  honesty  and  kindness  marked  the 
Pilgrims  in  their  other  relations  to  the  Indians.     These 
English  settlers  taught  the  Indians  the  truths 
Taught  0f  the  gospel.     Many  of  them  were  brought 

and  aided  jnto  the  faith  and  had  new  and  higher  views 
them  kindled  in  their  souls. 

Rev.  Samuel  Treat,  a  son  of  Governor  Treat 
of  Connecticut,  became  the  settled  pastor  of  the  church 


THE    PILGRIMS  321 

at  Eastham  in  1672.  Inside  of  fifteen  years  the  Chris- 
tian Indians  within  his  parish  numbered  not  less  than 
five  hundred.  The  children  who  are  not  included  in  this 
estimate,  and  who  are  supposed  to  have  been  under  Chris- 
tian influences,  were  two  or  three  times  this  number.  The 
death  of  this  devoted  minister  occurred  in  March,  1717. 
His  funeral  was  impressive.  There  had  been  a  tremendous 
snow-storm.  Goodwin  thus  describes  the  scene :  "  The 
wind  so  eddied  around  the  parsonage  that  it  was  left, 
untouched  by  snow,  in  the  basin  of  an  enormous  circular 
drift.  Under  this  barrier  a  tunnel  was  excavated  for  the 
funeral  train.  The  Indian  converts  assisted  in  bearing  the 
body,  and  the  toilsome  way  required  many  relays.  It  was 
a  sublime  sight,  as,  down  that  crystal  archway  and  on 
through  the  outlying  drifts,  their  venerable  pastor  was 
borne  to  his  grave  by  the  united  hands  of  his  white  and  red 
disciples  —  the  returning  laborer  surrounded  by  the  liv- 
ing sheaves.  No  titled  potentate  ever  had  burial  more 
truly  royal."  Robert  Treat  Paine  was  a  grandson  of  this 
consecrated  and  heroic  friend  of  the  Indians. 

The  Pilgrims'  ministered  to  the  Indians  in  sickness. 
They  arbitrated  their  quarrels,  and  lessened  jealousies  and 
frictions  between  the  tribes.  They  saw  that  red  men  who 
had  been  employed  by  white  men  to  do  any  kind  of  work 
were  properly  remunerated  for  their  services.  Improper 
advantages  were  not  to  be  taken  of  them  in  trade.  When 
oppressed  by  cold  or  threatened  with  starvation,  and  they 
made  appeals  for  succor,  these  untutored  savages  were 
never  turned  unaided  from  the  doors  of  their  civilized 
neighbors.  When  discipline  was  necessary  the  Pilgrims 
knew  how  to  administer  it,  whether  it  was  hanging  one  of 
their  own  number  who  had  been  guilty  of  murder,  or  smit- 
ing the  leaders  of  a  cruel  conspiracy  to  the  death.  But 
justice  and  kindness  were  the  watchwords  which  guided 
them  and  characterized  the  Pilgrims  in  their  dealings  with 
the  Indians.  The  Indian  was  helped  in  every  way  in  which 
he  could  be  helped.  Palfrey  says :  "  The  shield  of  law  was 
held  over  him  with  assiduous  solicitude.  Whoever  could 
be  proved  to  have  wronged  him  was  made  to  feel  that  he 
had  a  watchful  guardian,  severe  in  measures  of  redress. 

21 


322  THE    PILGRIMS 

The  hurtful  engagements  into  which  he  was  most  liable  to 
be  entrapped,  this  law  declared  to  be  null  from  the  begin- 
ning, .  .  .  and  special  opportunities  for  humane  and  tender 
treatment  of  him  were  generously  used." 

It  was  a  glorious  record  —  that  which  was  made  by  the 
Pilgrims  in  their  dealings  with  the  Indians.  There  were 
some  mistakes  and  shortcomings ;  but,  had  they  been  per- 
mitted to  live  their  lives  over  again,  there  were  few  trans- 
actions in  the  whole  three-quarters  of  a  century  which  could 
have  been  much  improved. 


XV 

FOSTERING    THE    CHURCH 


Thou  broughtest  a  vine  out  of  Egypt;  Thou  didst  drive  out  the  nations 
and  plantedst  it.  Thou  preparedst  room  before  it,  and  it  took  deep  root 
and  filled  the  land.  —  From  The  Eightieth  Psalm. 

The  men  and  women  who  are  positive  in  the  character  of  their  beliefs 
are  the  men  and  women  who  are  known  to  be  constructive  forces  in  the 
regenerative  agencies  of  the  world.  —  W.  H.  W.  Boyle. 

The  practical  aim  or  ideal  of  our  fathers,  in  their  migration  to  the  new 
world,  was  religion.    This  was  the  star  of  the  East  that  guided  them  hither. 

Horace  Bushnell. 

I  seem  to  see  in  the  mature  designs  of  Him,  .  .  .  who  moves  in  his  own 
appointed  times,  and  selects  and  prepares  his  own  instruments,  the  re-enact- 
ment of  the  first  scenes  of  the  Christian  dispensation,  in  the  establishment  of 
the  Christian  faith  on  this  unpeopled  continent  .  .  .  and  hail  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  as  the  bearers  of  a  new  commission,  than  which  there  has  been  no 
greater  since  the  time  of  the  Apostles.  —  William  M.  Evarts. 

The  two  distinct  messages  of  Congregationalism  originally  were  that  the 
Church  of  Christ  ought  to  be  composed  only  of  persons  spiritually  renewed 
and  living  in  obedience  to  Him ;  and  that  such  persons  united  in  one  local 
church  should  have  liberty  to  worship  God  in  their  own  manner,  according 
to  the  dictates  of  their  own  conscience,  and  to  manage  their  own  ecclesi- 
astical affairs.  —  The  Congregationalism 

We  do  not  honor  the  Pilgrims  simply  as  the  Fathers  of  New  England, 
but  because  they  were  the  depositories  and  best  representatives  then  on  the 
earth  of  the  one  central  principle  on  which  the  hopes  of  the  race  rest  .  .  . 
the  vital  union  of  man  with  God  in  moral  conformity  to  Him,  and  so  in  pre- 
paration for  an  eternal  life.  —  Mark  Hopkins. 


XV 

FOSTERING   THE    CHURCH 

THE  church  of  which  the  Pilgrims  were  members  was 
already  an  organized  institution  when  they  reached 
the  New  World.  Back  at  Scrooby,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, the  little  company  of  kindred  spirits  who  were 
shocked  by  the  empty  formality  and  disgraceful  worldli- 
ness  into  which  the  church  had  drifted,  and  whose  hearts 
had  been  "  touched  by  the  Lord  with  heavenly  zeal  for  the 
truth,"  and  who  were  ready  to  "  shake  off  the  yoke  of  anti- 
Christian  bondage "  which  had  been  placed  upon  their 
necks,  had  joined  themselves  by  solemn  covenant  "  into  a 
Church  estate  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Gospel,  to  walk  in 
all  its  ways,  made  known,  or  to  be  made  known  unto  them, 
according  to  their  best  endeavors,  whatever  it  shall  cost 
them."  In  England,  while  the  Pilgrims  still  remained 
there,  at  Amsterdam,  at  Leyden,  and  in  their  new  and 
permanent  home  at  Plymouth,  this  was  their  bond  of 
union.  It  was  a  sacred  and  all-sufficient  bond.  How  well 
the  terms  and  implications  of  it  were  met,  especially  by  the 
original  parties  to  it,  is  one  of  the  shining  facts  of  history. 
It  was  no  idle  claim  that  "  the  true  piety,  the  humble 
zeal,  and  fervent  love  of  this  people,  while  they  lived  to- 
gether, towards  God  and  His  ways,  and  the  single-hearted- 
ness and  sincere  affection  one  towards  another,"  brought 
them  as  near  realizing  "  the  primitive  pattern  of  the  first 
Churches  "  as  anything  which  has  been  seen  in  these  later 
centuries.  It  was  along  the  lines  and  in  the  spirit  of  this 
covenant  that  the  religious  life  of  the  Pilgrims  was  to  be 
developed. 


326  THE    PILGRIMS 


In  the  discussion  of  the  church  question  at  Leyden,  two 
things  were  definitely  settled.     It  was  settled,  "  by  mutual 

consent  and  covenant,  that  those  who  went 
The  two  should  be  an  absolute  Church  by  themselves, 
branches  as  we\\  as  those  who  stayed."  It  was  also 
one  settled  that,  as  the  number  who  were  to  remain 

was  larger  than  the  number  who  were  to  go, 
Pastor  Robinson  should  abide  with  the  majority,  while 
Elder  Brewster  should  join  the  emigrating  section.  They 
reached  the  first  of  these  conclusions  on  the  ground  that 
"  in  such  a  dangerous  voyage,  and  a  removal  to  such  a 
distance,  it  might  come  to  pass,  for  the  body  of  them, 
never  to  meet  again  in  this  world  —  yet  with  this  pro- 
viso, that  as  any  of  the  rest  came  over  to  them,  or  any  of 
the  others  returned  upon  occasion,  they  should  be  reported 
as  members  without  any  further  dismission  or  testimonial." 
The  second  conclusion  was  both  natural  and  just.  Still, 
one  cannot  help  pondering  in  his  own  mind  what  would 
have  been  the  effect  upon  the  colony,  and  especially  upon 
the  religious  life  of  the  colony,  had  the  list  of  passengers, 
which  the  Mayflower  bore  across  the  Atlantic,  contained  the 
illustrious  name  of  John  Robinson. 


n 

The  first  meeting-house  of  the  Pilgrims  was  a  fort. 
This  fort  was  built  in  the  trying  summer  of  1622.  The 
air  was  thick  with  rumors  of  attacks  by  the 
The  first  Indians.  Tidings  had  reached  the  colony  of 
meeting-  the  dreadful  massacre  which  had  already 
house  taken  place  in  Virginia.     It  seemed  impera- 

tive that  a  strong  defense  should  be  provided. 
But  while  safety  was  the  primary  object  in  the  erection 
of  this  building  it  was  made  to  do  duty  for  worship.  The 
picture  is  one  familiar  to  the  imagination  of  the  way  in 
which  these  stern  but  devout  souls  went  up  to  the  place  of 


THE    PILGRIMS  327 

prayer.  Called  together  by  beat  of  drum,  marching  fully 
equipped  and  in  orderly  ranks,  guarded  through  the  long 
exercises  by  watchful  sentinels,  and  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  services  going  back  to  their  homes  with  slow  step  and 
solemn  mien,  but  with  hearts  encouraged  and  strengthened 
by  communion  with  Him  whom  they  sought  to  acknowl- 
edge in  all  their  ways,  and  by  the  words  of  promise  which 
had  fallen  on  their  ears  from  the  Scriptures,  and  by  the 
illuminating  remarks  of  their  good  elder,  they  worshiped 
in  spirit  and  in  truth,  and  the  rewards  of  such  worship 
were  bestowed  upon  them  in  abundant  measure. 


Ill 

For  almost  a  decade,  or  from  the  hour  when  Robinson 
made  his  prayer  of  parting  and  farewell  at  Delfshaven,  to 

the  hour  of  the  settlement  of  an  ordained 
Brewster's  minister  at  Plymouth,  Brewster  was  the  spir- 
ministry        itual  guide  of  the  little  flock  in  the  wilderness. 

This  is  why  his  name  appears  only  in  the  most 
important  of  the  business  transactions  of  the  colony,  and 
why,  though  his  counsel  was  always  in  demand  and  always 
at  the  service  of  the  chosen  authorities,  he  was  never  ad- 
vanced to  civic  leadership.  In  natural  ability,  in  training, 
and  above  all,  in  wide  and  varied  experience  in  affairs,  he 
was  one  of  the  most  competent  men  of  the  company  to  stand 
at  the  head  in  times  of  financial  pressure,  and  when  the  skies 
of  the  future  were  black  with  clouds.  He  was,  also,  not  only 
one  of  the  best,  but  the  best  one  to  have  charge  of  the  relig- 
ious interests  of  the  Pilgrims.  He  had  the  age,  the  knowl- 
edge, the  furnishing  of  books,  the  spiritual  insight,  the 
devout  temper,  the  loving  heart,  the  irreproachable  charac- 
ter, the  confidence  and  affection  of  the  people,  and  —  a 
matter  of  no  small  consequence  —  the  advantage  of  long 
and  close  intimacy  with  the  great  Pastor  who  had  been  left 
behind,  to  qualify  him  above  all  others  for  this  service  in  the 
things  of  God  and  the  soul. 

Brewster  was  never  set  apart  to  the  ministry  by  the 
laying  on  of  hands,  and  he  remained  an  elder  to  the  end. 


328  THE    PILGRIMS 

Not  having  been  ordained,  he  refused  to  administer  the 
sacraments.    Evidently  he  was  urged  to  do  this,  and  ques- 
tioned in  his  own  mind  whether  he  might  not 
Never  d0  jt,  and  then  justify  the  action  by  the  circum- 

ordained  stances  in  which  the  little  church  was  placed. 
When,  as  at  Leyden,  the  church  had  a  regular 
pastor,  they  had  had  the  Lord's  Supper  every  Sunday. 
Baptism,  too,  was  administered  as  often  as  there  was  oc- 
casion. It  is  no  wonder  there  was  a  craving  for  these 
ordinances.  The  elder  turned  to  the  wise  and  beloved 
man  of  God  who  was  back  in  Holland.  Robinson  frankly 
gave  his  judgment  against  administering  the  sacraments 
by  an  unordained  man.  Brewster  acquiesced ;  and  the  little 
church  had  to  be  content  with  such  forms  and  measures  of 
ministry  as  were  deemed  competent  to  elders.  He  taught 
and  exhorted,  he  labored  in  word  and  doctrine,  and  he 
gave  full  proof  of  his  ministry;  but  he  refused  to  go 
beyond  these  offices  and  distribute  the  elements  at  the 
communion  table,  or  to  apply  water  in  baptism.  It  is 
doubtful  if  some  of  our  modern  laymen,  who,  without 
much  fitness  for  the  office,  or  much  persuasion  to  enter  it, 
make  bold  to  teach  in  sacred  things,  would  have  shown 
themselves  either  so  modest  or  so  scrupulous.  It  is  not 
to  be  doubted  that  the  church  might  have  authorized  their 
thoroughly  competent  elder  to  administer  the  sacraments. 
But  the  Pilgrims  were  a  people  on  whom  the  eyes  of  the 
world  looked  with  anything  but  sympathy,  and  wisdom 
toward  those  who  were  without  required  that  they  walk 
with  the  utmost  circumspection.  This  they  did  in  faith 
and  patience  for  ten  long  years. 

Splendid  testimonies,  borne  by  his  associates,  to  the  value 
of  Brewster's  ministrations  are  on  record.     "  He  taught 
twice  every  Sabbath."     Neither  the  pressure 
Splendid        0f   business   nor   home   delights   and   duties; 
testimo-  neither    weariness    of   body    caused    by    hard 

nies  to  daily  toil  nor  exhaustion  of  time  and  strength 

Brewster's     [n  other  forms  of  religious  activity,  had  led 
ministry        these  simple  souls  to  think  that  they  might 
wisely    give   up   their   second   service.      They 
had  no  regularly  qualified  minister,  but  they  maintained 


THE    PILGRIMS  329 

their  two  services.  Bradford  says  of  the  teaching  which 
the  good  elder  gave  them  "  twice  every  Sabbath  "  that  it 
was  both  powerful  and  profitable,  and  that  it  was  like- 
wise "  to  the  great  contentment  of  the  hearers  and  their 
comfortable  edification."  "  In  prayer,  both  public  and 
private,  he  was  singularly  gifted  in  laying  open  the  heart 
and  conscience  before  God,  in  the  humble  confession  of 
sin,"  and  in  "  begging  the  mercies  of  God  in  Christ  for 
pardon." 

IV 

The  Bible  used  in  the  homes  and  in  the  pulpit  was  the 
Geneva  Bible,  though  the  King  James  Version  was  most 

likely  in  the  hands  of  some  of  the  colonists; 
The  Bible  for  both  versions,  so  far  as  expense  was  con- 
used  cerned,  were  within  reach  of  the  people.     But 

the  Geneva  Bible,  in  view  of  its  origin  and 
associations,  would  appeal  to  the  Pilgrims  with  a  peculiar 
force.  For  it  was  a  translation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures 
into  English  which  was  made  by  the  able,  devout,  and  con- 
scientious Christian  scholars  who  had  been  driven  from 
their  native  land  to  Geneva  during  the  merciless  reign  of 
"  Bloody  Mary."  When  the  Bible  was  read  in  public  ser- 
vice the  reading  was  accompanied  with  running  comments. 
To  read  the  Scriptures  without  expounding  them  was  re- 
garded as  "  dumb  reading."  The  hymn  book  in  the  hands 
of  the  Pilgrims  was  Ainsworth's  Psalms.  It  is  not  likely 
that  the  words  were  obscured  by  artistic  singing. 


In  the  spring  of  1624,  the  long  cherished  desire  of  the 
church  for  a  resident  pastor  seemed  about  to  be  realized. 

The  same  ship  which  brought  letters  from 
A  minister  Robinson  to  Bradford  and  Brewster  —  the 
in  prospect    jast  ever  receiVed  from  him  by  any  member 

of  the  colony,  and  in  one  of  which  he  declared 
the    improbability,    owing    to    conspiracies    against    him 


330  THE    PILGRIMS 

among  the  Adventurers,  of  his  ever  coming  to  them  — 
brought  also  Rev.  John  Lyford.  Reading  between  the  lines 
in  a  paragraph  about  him  in  an  epistle  sent  by  Cush- 
man,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  he  and  Winslow,  who  was  then 
in  England,  were  not  oversanguine  in  their  estimates  of 
his  worth,  or  how  he  would  turn  out.  Their  minds  would 
have  been  filled  with  something  more  positive  than  mis- 
givings had  they  known  the  man's  history  and  character. 
"  The  preacher  we  have  sent  is,  we  hope,  an  honest,  plain 
man,  though  none  of  the  most  earnest  and  rare.  About 
choosing  him  into  office  use  your  own  liberty  and  dis- 
cretion; he  knows  he  is  no  officer  amongst  you,  though 
perhaps  custom  and  universality  may  make  him  forget 
himself.  Mr.  Winslow  and  myself  gave  way  to  his  going, 
to  give  content  to  some  here ;  and  we  see  no  hurt  in  it,  but 
only  his  great  charge  of  children." 

The  latent  distrust  of  this  communication  was  justified 
a  hundredfold.     The  man  proved  to  be  an  unmitigated 

rascal.  His  record  was  unsavory.  His  du- 
Lyford  a  plicity  knew  no  bounds.  His  hypocrisy  was 
bad  man        monumental.     He  could  lie  and  repent,   and 

then  lie  and  repent  again,  with  all  the  facility 
with  which  a  skilled  artillerist  can  load  and  fire  a  gatling 
gun.  He  was  humble  on  occasion,  but  his  humility  was  of 
the  obtrusive,  sickening  sort.  Bradford's  account  of  his 
deferential  attitude  towards  the  members  of  the  colony, 
—  an  account  written  many  years  after  the  exposure  of 
the  fellow's  contemptible  meanness  and  duplicity  —  shows 
what  a  cringing,  fawning,  slimy  creature  he  was.  "  When 
this  man  first  came  ashore,  he  saluted  them  with  that  rev- 
erence and  humility  as  is  seldom  to  be  seen,  and  indeed 
made  them  ashamed,  he  so  bowed  and  cringed  unto  them, 
and  would  have  kissed  their  hands,  if  they  would  have 
suffered  him;  yea,  he  wept  and  shed  tears,  blessing  God 
that  had  brought  him  to  see  their  faces;  and  admiring 
the  things  they  had  done  in  their  wants,  and  so  forth,  as 
if  he  had  been  made  all  of  love,  and  the  humblest  person 
in  the  world."  He  was  allowed  to  preach.  At  his  own 
request  he  was  received  into  the  church.  He  got  no  further. 
For  very  soon  he  became  a  mischief-maker. 


THE    PILGRIMS  331 

Lyford  found  a  kindred  spirit  in  John  Oldam.     This 
Oldam  was  one  of  those  who  had  come  to  Plymouth,  not 
as  a  member  of  the  colony,  but  on  his  own 
John  individual   account.      "  He   had  been   a   chief 

Oldam  stickler  in  the  former  faction  among  the  par- 

ticulars, and  an  intelligencer  to  those  in  Eng- 
land." But,  as  the  ship  which  brought  Lyford  also  brought 
supplies,  the  outlook  was  changed.  Oldam  was  forward 
with  confessions  of  his  evil  ways,  with  regrets  for  the 
harm  he  had  done,  and  with  profuse  promises  of  amend- 
ment and  cooperation  in  the  future.  He  was  taken  at  his 
word  and  even  invited  into  the  counsels  of  the  colony. 
He  was  the  kind  of  leopard,  however,  that  does  not  change 
his  spots.  He  was  without  a  drop  of  honest  blood  in  his 
veins.  He  may  have  had  twinges  of  conscience,  and  a 
momentary  purpose  to  do  better ;  but,  if  so,  he  soon  lapsed 
back  and  was  up  to  his  elbows  in  his  old  tricks.  There 
was  no  soundness  in  him. 


VI 

It  was  not  long  before  these  two  precious  scamps  had 
entered  into  a  deliberate  plot  to  revolutionize  the  little 

independent    church   and    overturn    the   little 
Conspiracy     republican  state,  and  wreck  the  whole  under- 
of  Lyford       taking  of  the  Pilgrims, 
and  Oldam         This,  by  the  way,  is  the  open  secret  of  the 

presence  of  Lyford  in  the  colony.  It  will  be 
recalled  that  in  the  last  letters  written  by  Robinson  to  his 
friends  at  Plymouth,  intimation  was  given  of  an  intention 
on  the  part  of  some  of  the  Adventurers  to  prevent  his  going 
to  America.  It  will  be  recalled,  too,  that  Cushman  in  his 
letter  spoke  of  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  on  him  and 
Winslow  to  permit  the  going  over  of  Lyford.  The  scheme 
was  to  set  up  an  episcopacy  in  the  church  and  check  the 
tendency  to  democracy  in  the  state.  Precisely  this  is 
what  the  two  conspirators  attempted.  By  misrepresenta- 
tion, by  bald  lying,  by  audacious  effrontery,  by  stirring 
up  the  spirit  of  faction,  by  treachery  amounting  to 
treason,  they  sought  to  accomplish  their  unholy  ends. 


332  THE    PILGRIMS 

But  it  takes  a  very  shrewd  man  to  be  as  shrewd  in  vil- 
lainy as  an  honest  man  can  be  in  honesty.  What  seem 
to  be  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing  often  turn  out  to  be  only 
stupid  asses.  The  leaders  of  this  sorely  tried  colony  were 
not  the  kind  of  "  elect "  who  were  easily  deceived.  The 
cunning  and  malicious  schemes  of  these  two  men  were 
speedily  discovered.  In  the  exercise  of  his  authority  and 
the  discharge  of  his  duty  as  a  magistrate,  Bradford  went 
aboard  the  ship  which  was  to  carry  the  mail  to  England, 
intercepted  and  opened  the  letters  —  about  twenty  of  them 
—  which  Lyford  had  written  to  his  fellow  conspirators 
at  home,  took  copies  of  some  and  retained  the  originals  of 
others,  and  at  the  proper  psychological  moment,  when 
things  had  "  ripened,"  and  the  men  had  begun  to  put  their 
plot  in  execution,  confronted  them  in  open  meeting  with 
the  evidence  of  their  duplicity  and  treachery.  Few  of 
Oldam's  letters  were  found,  for  he  was  a  bad  "  scribe  "  — 
"  yet  he  was  as  deep  in  the  mischief  as  the  other."  For 
"  amongst  the  rest  they  found  a  letter  of  one  of  their 
confederates  in  which  was  written  that  Mr.  Oldam  and 
Mr.  Lyford  intended  a  reformation  in  Church  and  Com- 
monwealth," and  that,  as  soon  as  practicable  after 
the  ship  had  sailed,  they  were  to  launch  their  project. 
This  they  did.  This  is  what  Bradford  meant  by  letting 
things  "  ripen."  But  the  schemers  were  detected,  and 
their  schemes  came  to  naught.  The  harm  they  would  have 
done  was  averted ;  and,  in  due  time,  to  the  satisfaction  of 
all  save  themselves,  the  plotters  were  shown  the  open  door 
to  other  parts  of  the  land.  In  view  of  the  aggravating 
features  of  the  case,  the  forbearance  of  the  Pilgrims  was 
wonderful.  For,  while  Oldam  was  compelled  by  sentence 
of  the  court  to  go  at  once,  his  wife  and  family  were  per- 
mitted to  remain  all  winter,  or  until  he  could  make  proper 
provision  for  them;  and  Lyford  was  allowed  to  stay  in 
the  place  for  six  months.  The  seeds  of  mischief,  however, 
which  the  two  men  sowed,  though  they  sprouted,  never 
yielded  the  full  crop  of  evil  which  the  sowers  anticipated. 
Lyford  preached  to  a  few  who  hovered  around  the 
colony,  and  who  had  been  disaffected  towards  it  by  his  in- 
sinuations and  opposition;    and  his  preaching  met  with 


THE    PILGRIMS  333 

little  response.  The  members  of  the  church,  as  has  been 
said,  were  eager  for  an  ordained  minister  —  a  minister 
who  could  discharge  all  the  duties  of  the  office;  but  they 
were  spared  the  humiliation  and  disaster  of  seeing  their 
pastorate  filled  by  an  ordained  renegade.  So  the  clean 
and  faithful  Brewster,  who  "  would  never  be  persuaded 
to  take  higher  office  upon  him  "  than  that  of  elder,  had 
to  keep  steadily  on  his  way  "  in  dispensing  the  Word  of 
God  "  to  the  little  flock. 

An  impressive  illustration  of  the  esteem  in  which  Elder 
Brewster  was  held,  and  of  the  blessing  which  followed  his 

endeavors  to  win  men  to  the  faith,  is  found  in 
Further  j-ne  renewal  of  religious  interest  and  the  acces- 

appreci-  sions  to  membership  in  the  church,  right  after 

ation  of  these  perplexing  and  disheartening  experi- 
Brewster        ences  with  Lyford.     "  Many  who  before  stood 

something  off  from  the  Church  —  now  tend- 
ered themselves  to  the  Church  and  joined  it."  "  And  so 
these  troubles  produced  a  quite  contrary  effect  in  sundry 
here  than  these  adversaries  hoped  for;  which  was  looked 
at  as  a  great  work  of  God,  to  draw  on  men  by  unlikely 
means." 

Following  this  experience  with  Lyford,  there  was  another 
disappointment  in  store  for  the  Pilgrim  church.    Allerton, 

acting  on  his  own  responsibility,  when  he  re- 
Rogers  turned  from  one  of  his  business  trips  to  London, 
brought  [n  1628,  brought  back  with  him  a  young  min- 
over               ister  by  the  name  of  Rogers.    Little  is  known, 

and  little  needs  to  be  known  of  him.  It  was  at 
once  discovered,  so  Bradford  says,  "  upon  some  trial,  that 
he  was  crazed  in  his  brain."  This  ended  the  experiment 
with  this  new  candidate  for  their  pulpit;  and,  as  soon  as 
they  might,  the  Pilgrims  sent  the  unfortunate  man  back 
to  his  native  land. 

Allerton  was  blamed,  as  no  doubt  he  should  have  been, 
for  involving  the  colony  in  the  expense  of  bringing  this 
man  over,  and  shipping  him  back  again.  Why  he  did  it  has 
been  thought  a  mystery.  It  hardly  needs  to  have  been. 
Four  years,  or  a  little  more  it  may  be,  before  this,  Allerton 
had  married  Fear,  a  daughter  of  Brewster.    He  was  nat- 


334  THE    PILGRIMS 

urally  interested  in  the  welfare  and  comfort  of  the  good 
elder.  Brewster  wished  very  much  to  have  a  regularly 
ordained  minister  come  to  his  relief.  Only  such  a  minister, 
in  his  own  estimation  and  the  estimation  of  Robinson,  could 
properly  administer  the  ordinances.  The  son-in-law  knew 
this ;  coming  across  a  young  man  who  had  been  ordained, 
and  who  was  foot  loose,  and  not  stopping  to  make  the 
necessary  inquiries  about  him,  he  took  it  upon  himself  to 
bring  him  over.  The  intent  was  kindly,  but  disaster  fol- 
lowed. The  collapse  of  the  young  minister  was  sad  and 
utter. 

But  why  call  this  man  "  pastor  "  ?  He  was  no  more  pas- 
tor of  the  church  at  Plymouth  than  a  man  would  be  pastor 
of  the  Union  Park  Church,  in  Chicago,  or  the  Old  South 
Church,  in  Boston,  who  at  a  time  when  the  pulpit  might 
chance  to  be  vacant,  should  be  brought  forward  and  intro- 
duced by  some  leading  member,  and  given  a  trial  for  a 
single  Sunday,  and  then  sent  on  his  way  again  because 
found  unsuited  to  the  place.  Lyford  was  never  "  pastor  " 
of  the  church.  Neither  was  Rogers  ever  "  pastor  "  of  the 
church.  Yet,  lying  right  here  before  me,  is  a  statement 
from  the  pen  of  one  of  our  accepted  writers  on  the  history 
of  these  old  colonial  days  in  which  it  is  affirmed  that 
"  Lyford,  their  first  pastor,  was  deposed  for  immorality ; 
Rogers,  their  second,  ceased  to  serve  because  '  crazed  in 
the  brain.'  "  It  is  time  that  misrepresentations  like  these, 
which  are  sometimes  caught  up  and  repeated  by  men  of 
wide  intelligence  and  national  reputation,  should  cease; 
and  that  our  writers  and  speakers  should  stop  calling  such 
a  scoundrel  as  Lyford,  and  such  an  unfortunate  wreck  as 
Rogers,  "  first  pastor  "  and  "  second  pastor  "  of  the  Pil- 
grim church. 

In   the  midsummer   of   1629,  by   a   singular   combina- 
tion of  circumstances,  Rev.  Ralph  Smith,  a  regularly  or- 
dained minister,  and  a  man  of  character,  found 
Rev.  Ralph    j^g  wav  to  Plymouth.    He  had  a  wife  and  chil- 
Smith.  dren.     He  seems  to  have  been  a  member  of  the 

Massachusetts  Bay  Colony.  At  the  time  of 
his  appearance  on  the  scene  he  was  living  with  a  little 
struggling  group  of  settlers  at  Nantasket.    Through  the 


THE    PILGRIMS  335 

happy  chance  of  a  boat  from  Plymouth  landing  at  Nan- 
tasket,  he  found  his  way  to  the  Pilgrims.  The  men  who 
brought  him  "  had  no  order  for  any  such  thing ;  "  but,  "  see- 
ing him  to  be  a  grave  man,"  and  learning  that  "  he  had 
been  a  minister,"  they  presumed  to  take  him  aboard  their 
little  craft  and  bring  him  to  the  colony.  He  received  a 
kindly  welcome ;  was  housed  amongst  them ;  and  very  soon 
began  to  "  exercise  his  gifts  "  in  their  rude  pulpit.  The 
result  was  that  he  was  chosen  to  be  the  minister  of  the 
church. 

Smith  was  the  first  regularly  ordained  and  settled  pas- 
tor of  the  first  church  at  Plymouth.  He  was  evidently  a 
good  man.  Inasmuch  as  he  was  authorized  by 
Smith,  the  ordination  in  due  form  to  administer  the  sacra- 
first  ments,  this  people  had  a  long  deferred  oppor- 
pastor  tunity  to  sit  once  more  at  the  communion 
table,  and  to  have  their  children  baptized. 
This,  in  their  estimation,  was  a  great  and  precious  privi- 
lege; and  one  cannot  help  thinking  of  the  well-nigh 
rapturous  joy  with  which  these  plain  men  and  women  in 
the  wilderness,  for  the  first  time  after  so  many  years, 
pressed  the  symbols  of  the  dying  love  of  our  Lord  to  their 
lips. 

The  pastorate  of  Smith  lasted  only  a  little  more  than 
six  years.  For  though  he  was  a  good  man,  he  was 
neither  very  able  nor  very  popular.  At 
Pastorate  the  conclusion  of  his  account  of  things  in 
not  long  .  16g6?  Bradford  says:  "  This  year  Mr.  Smith 
laid  down  his  place  of  ministry,  partly  by 
his  own  willingness,  as  thinking  it  too  heavy  a  bur- 
den; and  partly  at  the  desire  and  by  the  persuasion  of 
others." 

Shortly  after  the  close  of  his  pastorate,  Smith  had  an 
experience  which  in  part,  it  may  be,  justifies  the  statement 
just  made  that  he  was  not  a  man  of  much  ability.  In  1636, 
the  somewhat  erratic  and  troublesome  Samuel  Gorton  came 
with  his  wife  from  London  by  way  of  Salem  to  Plymouth. 
The  two  boarded  at  Smith's.  Gorton  evidently  took  his 
turn  in  leading  the  family  devotions.  It  was  not  long  be- 
fore the  ex-pastor's  wife  was  ready  to  say,  and  perhaps  a 


336  THE    PILGRIMS 

bit  too  forward  to  say,  that  she  thought  the  prayers  of 
Gorton  were  better  than  those  of  her  husband.  The  remark 
was  neither  to  edification  nor  harmony.  Smith  could  not 
stand  a  comparison  so  humiliating,  and  he  straightway 
ordered  the  gifted  brother  out  of  the  house.  The  man  of 
superior  unction  in  prayer  refused  to  go ;  and  it  was  not 
until  the  aggrieved  minister  took  the  matter  into  court  that 
Gorton  quit. 


VIII 

One  of  the  most  interesting  facts  for  which  Smith's  min- 
istry in  the  Old  Colony  is  to  be  remembered  is  that  Roger 

Williams  was  associated  with  him  for  a  time 
Roger  jn  hjg  work.     Williams  came  to  Massachusetts 

Williams  in  tne  ear]v  months  of  1631.  Soon  after  land- 
at  Ply-  jng  aj-  j-ne  Bay  he  was  asked  to  supply  the  pul- 

mouth  -p[t  0f  the  Boston  church  during  the  absence 

in  England  of  its  pastor,  Rev.  John  Wilson. 
He  made  conditions  so  exacting  and  illiberal  towards  the 
Church  of  England  that  the  members  of  the  Boston  church 
were  unwilling,  as  they  ought  to  have  been,  to  accede 
to  them,  and  Williams  left  and  went  to  Salem.  Here  he 
precipitated  another  controversy  over  the  charter  under 
which  the  colony  was  settled.  The  people  became  alarmed 
for  the  existence  of  their  government.  Williams  relieved 
the  situation  once  more  by  withdrawing  from  Salem  and 
going  to  Plymouth.  Here  he  spent  nearly  two  years.  He 
held  extreme  opinions  on  three  points ;  the  need  of  abso- 
lute separation  from  the  Church  of  England,  the  renunci- 
ation of  the  authority  of  magistrates  in  church  matters, 
and  baptism  by  immersion  as  the  only  Scriptural  mode  of 
administering  the  rite.  His  opinions  were  shared  only  by 
a  few ;  and  he  asked  for  letters  back  to  the  Salem  church. 
Discussion  arose.  Feelings  were  excited.  At  length  the 
church  followed  the  advice  of  Elder  Brewster,  and  the  dis- 
mission sought  was  granted.  The  ground  of  the  elder's 
advice  was  that  if  Williams  remained  with  them  he  would 
u  cause  divisions." 


THE    PILGRIMS  337 

Bradford  fully  appreciated  the  many  excellent  qualities 
in  Williams.     He  called  him  "  a  man  godly  and  zealous, 

having  many  precious  parts,  but  very  unset- 
Bradford's  tie(j  in  judgment."  "  His  teaching  "  was  "  well 
opinion  of  approved,  for  the  benefit  whereof  I  still  bless 
Williams        God."     The  simple  fact  is  that  it  took  Roger 

Williams  a  good  while  to  get  his  bearings. 
The  Pilgrims  were  a  great  deal  more  tolerant  towards  him 
than  he  was  towards  them.  While  he  was  still  struggling 
with  the  alphabet  of  toleration,  these  simple  people  at 
Plymouth  appear  to  have  been  well  schooled  in  the  subject. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  he  got  his  first  lesson  in  toleration 
at  the  feet  of  the  Pilgrims.  At  any  rate,  it  is  well  that  the 
world  has  consented  to  forget  what  he  stood  for  at  the 
outset  of  his  career,  and  to  remember  only  what  he  came 
to  represent  later  in  his  life. 


IX 

The  church  had  the  usual  experience  of  churches  in 
general  in  securing  a  successor  to  Mr.  Smith.  Winslow 
was  abroad  on  business,  and  though  the  pulpit 
Seeking  a  was  not  actually  vacant  when  he  left,  coming 
successor  events  cast  their  shadows  before,  and  he  was 
to  Smith.  charged  with  the  duty  of  looking  up  a  new 
minister.  He  found  a  man,  Glover  by  name, 
whom  he  took  to  be  a  suitable  person  for  the  Plymouth 
church.  Glover  consented  to  come ;  but,  according  to  the 
account  given  by  Bradford,  "  when  he  was  prepared  for 
the  voyage,  he  fell  sick  of  a  fever  and  died."  This  Glover 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  other  Glover,  whose  name 
is  associated  with  the  setting  up  of  the  first  printing-press 
in  America,  and  who,  sailing  with  his  wife  for  Boston  in 
1638,  died  at  sea. 

Another  promising  candidate  was  found  in  Mr.  John 
Norton.  He  listened  to  the  overtures  made  to  him,  and  was 
willing  to  come;  but  he  would  not  agree  to  accept  a  call 
until  he  had  arrived  and  looked  the  situation  over.  He 
came  and  preached  for  a  while,  and  soon  won  the  appro- 

22 


338  THE    PILGRIMS 

bation  of  the  people.  Meantime  he  received  an  invitation 
to  go  to  Ipswich,  "  where,"  as  Bradford  says  in  a  not  alto- 
gether disguised  tone  of  criticism,  "  there  were  many  rich 
and  able  men,  and  sundry  of  his  acquaintances ; "  and  he 
chose  to  settle  in  that  town.  In  virtue  of  the  mention  of  his 
name  by  Cotton,  of  Boston,  when  on  his  death-bed,  as  a  most 
desirable  man  to  follow  him,  he  became  the  successor  of  that 
eminent  preacher. 

"  Having  been  often  disappointed  in  their  hopes  and 
desires,"  at  length  "  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  send  them  an 

able  and  godly  man  "  in  the  person  of  John 
John  Rayner.      He  was   "  of   a  meek   and  humble 

Bayner  spirit,  sound  in  the  truth,  and  every  way  un- 

secured reproachable   in    his    life    and   conversation." 

He  had  the  advantage,  too,  of  a  thorough 
college  training,  as  he  was  a  graduate  of  Magdalen  Col- 
lege, at  Cambridge,  England.  Rayner's  ministry  continued 
until  1654,  or  eighteen  years  in  all.  It  was  marked  by 
unanimity  in  the  church,  much  fruitfulness,  and  great 
comfort  to  the  people.  One  of  the  successes  of  this  pas- 
torate, and  a  way-mark  in  the  history  of  the  Plymouth 
church,  was  the  erection  of  the  first  meeting-house  built 
by  the  people.  This  house  was  put  up  in  1648.  Up 
to  this  time  worship  had  been  conducted  in  the  fort. 
Thacher  says  that  the  new  building  "  was  furnished  with 
a  bell."  Goodwin  says  there  was  no  bell  until  1679.  Per- 
haps all  that  Thacher  means  is  that  there  was  a  belfry, 
or  a  place  to  hang  a  bell  when  they  got  one.  This  is 
likely. 

Rayner  went  from  Plymouth  to  Dover,  New  Hampshire, 
where  he  was  settled,  and  where  he  continued  to  preach 
until  his  death  in  1669.  He  made  full  proof  of  his  minis- 
try and  is  worthy  to  be  commemorated. 


There  was  an  episode  of  great  interest  in  connection  with 
this  last  pastorate.  As  Smith  had  his  Roger  Williams,  so 
Rayner  had  his  Charles  Chauncey.     The  Plymouth  men 


THE    PILGRIMS  339 

were  sound  in  the  faith  and  strict  in  their  living.     At  the 
same  time  they  were  tolerant.     If  there  was  anybody  with 
crotchets  in  his  head,   or  who  had   opinions 
Charles  slightly  off  color  which  he  wished  to  air,  he 

Chauncey       was  mGre  likely,  in  those  early  days  at  any 
at  rate,  to  get  a  patient  hearing  at  Plymouth 

Plymouth       than  in  any  other  of  the  colonies.     The  head- 
way he   could  make  with   his   crotchets   and 
opinions  is  another  thing. 

Chauncey  was  a  man  of  much  more  than  average  ability ; 
and  he  had  the  best  intellectual  training  which  the  Cam- 
bridge of  England  could  give  to  her  pupils  in 
An  able         those  days.     But  while  acquiring  the  learning, 
man  he  caught  the  spirit  of  that  famous  seat  of  bold 

thinking  and  plain  speaking.  Having  opin- 
ions and  convictions,  he  was  true  to  them ;  and  his  attitude 
on  the  practical  questions  of  the  time  very  soon  brought  him 
under  the  displeasure  of  Laud.  The  only  way  to  escape 
the  requirements  and  the  wrath  of  the  archbishop  was  to 
abandon  his  pulpit  in  the  Established  Church  and  flee  to 
the  New  World.  Shortly  after  his  arrival  in  this  country, 
the  Plymouth  people  invited  him  to  become  associated  with 
their  pastor,  who  had  then  been  their  minister  for  two 
years,  in  a  joint  occupancy  of  the  pulpit.  He  accepted  and 
filled  this  position  for  three  years.  During  that  period  we 
may  be  sure  the  Pilgrims  had  some  great  preaching. 

Nevertheless,  it  was  not  all  smooth  sailing.    Storms  gath- 
ered and  the  sea  was  rough.     Chauncey,  like  Williams, 
became   a   thorough-going  immersionist,   and 
Bough  insisted  that  plunging  is  the  only  Scriptural 

seas  mode  of  performing  the  rite  of  baptism.     He 

also  held  that  the  only  proper  time  to  observe 
the  communion  is  in  the  evening.  In  these  views  he  carried 
only  a  small  section  of  the  church  with  him.  Great  patience 
was  exercised  towards  him.  Neighboring  ministers  were 
called  in  to  meet  him  in  argument.  Written  opinions  from 
the  ablest  men  in  the  other  colonies  were  procured  and 
submitted  to  his  consideration,  but  his  position  remained 
unaltered.  His  merits  were  so  many  that  the  people  were 
loath  to  part  with  him.    But  he  insisted  on  going  unless  the 


340  THE    PILGRIMS 

church  would  fall  in  with  his  ways.  The  alternative  was 
offered  him  of  remaining  and  baptizing  in  his  own  method 
as  many  as  wished  to  be  baptized  after  this  fashion,  and 
administering  the  communion  by  candle-light  to  all  who 
preferred  this  time  for  partaking  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  It 
was  no  use.  He  still  insisted  that  the  church  must  adopt 
his  views,  or  he  would  withdraw.  The  result  was  that  he 
left  and  went  to  Scituate.  Here  he  carried  out  his  views, 
but  he  split  the  church.  The  seceders  formed  another 
organization,  and,  after  a  considerable  period  of  waiting, 
found  a  pastor  and  settled  him.  It  only  remains  to  add 
that  Chauncey  succeeded  Dunster,  and  became  the  second 
president  of  Harvard  College. 

One  cannot  help  wondering  at  the  singular  fortune  of  a 
little  straggling  church  like  that  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Ply- 
mouth,  which,    in    the    second   decade    of    its 
A  singular     existence,  should  have  had,  in  its  pulpit  service, 
fortune  two  men   of   such  eminent  ability   and  worth 

that  one  of  them  became  the  founder  of  a  state, 
and  the  other  the  president  of  an  institution  of  learning 
destined  to  be  an  ornament  to  a  great  nation  and  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  progress  of  learning  and  civilization 
throughout  the  world. 


XI 

Following  the  dismissal  of  Rayner,  there  was  a  period 
of  at  least  two  years  in  which  the  church  had  no  pastor. 

There  was  preaching,  but  no  settled  and  per- 
A  minister  manent  occupant  of  the  pulpit.  Elder  Thomas 
found  at  Cushman,    who     succeeded    Elder    Brewster, 

length  did  good  service,  no  doubt,  in  expounding  the 

Word.  But  after  years  of  waiting,  the  man 
for  the  place  was  found;  and  John  Cotton,  Jr.,  a  son  of 
the  famous  divine  of  the  Bay  colony,  stepped  into  the  place 
made  vacant  by  the  going  of  the  beloved  and  able  Rayner. 

John  Cotton  was  a  man  of  exceptional  efficiency.  He  in- 
herited no  small  measure  of  the  ability  of  his  father;  and 
his  mind  was  trained  by  early  and  thorough  application  to 


THE    PILGRIMS  341 

study.    He  graduated  from  Harvard  at  the  age  of  sixteen, 
or,  possibly,  seventeen.     He  had  a  remarkably  retentive 

memory;  and  was  especially  strong  in  his 
John  knowledge  of  the  Bible.     He  could  preach  to 

Cotton  the  Indians  in  their  own  tongue.    He  loved  the 

work  of  the  ministry,  and  gave  himself  without 
reserve  to  the  duties  of  his  calling.  He  had  preached  in 
various  places  in  Connecticut,  and  elsewhere,  for  about  ten 
years,  when  he  began  his  work  at  Plymouth;  and  it  was 
two  years  after  he  entered  on  his  ministry  in  this  latter 
place  before  he  was  installed.  So  soon,  however,  as  he  was 
duly  settled  in  this  pastorate,  which  was  in  1669,  he  took  up 
his  duties  with  system  and  vigor. 

To  begin  with,  he  started  out  on  a  thorough  canvass  of 
the  spiritual  condition  of  the  entire  community.     In  this 

effort  he  seems  to  have  had  the  hearty  co- 
Seeking  operation  of  Mr.  Thomas  Cushman,  who  was 
the  salva-  then  a  ruling  elder  in  the  church.  "  The 
tion  of  Ruling  Elder,"  so  the  fact  is  stated,  "  with 
souls              tne  pastor,  made  it  their  first  special  work  to 

pass  through  the  whole  town,  from  family  to 
family,  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  souls."  It  is  further 
said  that  "  he  was  very  desirous  of  the  conversion  of  souls." 
Do  not  these  two  facts  —  the  spirit  and  aim  of  the  man,  and 
his  method  of  going  about  his  work  —  let  us  into  the  secret 
of  the  marked  success  of  Cotton  in  his  Plymouth  ministry? 
At  the  beginning  of  his  pastorate  there  were  forty-seven 
resident  members  of  the  church.  The  first  year  of  his 
work  saw  twenty-seven  added  to  the  roll  of  full  communi- 
cants. The  next  year  fourteen ;  the  next  seventeen ;  and 
the  next  six.  The  record  for  his  thirty  years  of  toil  was  one 
hundred  and  seventy-eight.  For  a  small  church,  in  a  small 
community,  with  families  constantly  moving  into  other  sec- 
tions of  the  country,  that  is  an  exceedingly  gratifying 
showing.  It  can  do  no  harm  to  venture  the  suggestion  that 
there  may  be  lessons  in  this  exhibit  for  our  modern  times. 

Loving  his  people  with  all  his  heart,  and  loved  by  them 
with  a  tender  and  reverent  affection,  yet  at  the  end  of  thirty 
years  a  difference  arose  between  them  over  the  insignificant 
question  of  the  right  steps  to  be  taken  in  getting  into  the 


342  THE    PILGRIMS 

pastorate  of  a  church.     In  1694  Mr.  Isaac  Cushman  was 
asked  to  become  the  religious  teacher  of  the  church  in  what 

is  now  Plympton.  He  accepted  the  invitation. 
Resigna-  Cotton  "  strenuously  contended  that  Mr.  Cush- 
tion  of  man  ought  not  to  settle  before  being  designated 

Cotton  to  tne  office  of  ruling  elder  by  the  Church." 

The  controversy  raged  for  three  years.  The 
mutual  alienation  was  aggravated  by  importing  into  it 
some  apparently  groundless  scandals  in  which  the  good 
pastor  was  said  to  be  involved.  The  result  was  resig- 
nation and  the  end  of  a  pastorate  which  had  been  of 
great  service  to  the  church  and  town.  The  retired  pastor, 
after  having  left  the  pulpit,  lingered  in  Plymouth  for  a 
year  or  so ;  and  it  is  refreshing  to  record  that  all  differences 
between  him  and  the  church  were  made  up,  and  the  old 
relations  of  affection  and  esteem  were  restored.  Cotton 
at  the  end  of  a  little  more  than  a  twelvemonth,  left  Ply- 
mouth and  went  to  Charleston,  South  Carolina.  Here  he 
gathered  a  church,  repeated  his  early  successes,  and  in 
about  a  year  passed  on  to  his  great  reward.  He  was  a  man 
of  God,  honored  and  beloved,  and  very  serviceable  in  his 
day.  It  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  his  former  parishioners 
in  the  Old  Colony  that  they  erected  a  stone  in  their  burial 
ground  to  his  memory,  and  placed  upon  it  an  inscription 
expressive  of  their  appreciation. 

The  ministry  of  Cotton,  it  will  be  seen,  takes  the  history 
of  the  Plymouth  church  on  beyond  the  year  1692,  when  the 
Old  Colony  was  merged  in  the  Bay  colony,  and  the  twain 
became  the  future  magnificent  commonwealth  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 

XII 

There  are  not  a  few  incidents  of  peculiar  interest 
in    connection    with    the    history    of    the    church    of    the 

colonists. 
Incidents  jn  jjjs  j  0urnal  Governor  Winthrop  describes 

of  interest     a  visit  he  made  to  Plymouth,  in  which  we  get 

somewhat  more  than  a  glimpse  of  the  way  in 
which   their   religious    meetings    were    sometimes,    if   not 


THE    PILGRIMS  343 

always,  conducted  by  the  Pilgrims.  It  was  in  1632,  or 
during  the  time  when  Roger  Williams  was  residing  at 
Plymouth  and  assisting  Pastor  Smith  in  his 
Winthrop's  ministry.  The  governor,  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson, 
visit  to  anfj  two  others,  supposed  to  be  Endicott  and 

Plymouth  Underhill,  made  a  visit  to  the  Old  Colony. 
The  party  went  a  portion  of  the  way  by  boat 
and  the  remaining  distance  on  foot.  Somehow  apprised  of 
their  coming,  Bradford,  Brewster,  and  others  went  forth  at 
eventide  to  meet  the  distinguished  guests.  They  were  taken 
to  the  governor's  house ;  and  at  his  house  and  other  houses 
they  were  kindly  entertained  and  feasted  every  day. 

"  On  the  Lord's  Day,"  so  the  narrative  continues,  "  was 
a  sacrament,  which  they  did  partake  in ;  and  in  the  after- 
noon Mr.  Roger  Williams,  according  to  their  custom,  pro- 
pounded a  question,  to  which  their  pastor,  Mr.  Smith, 
spoke  briefly.  Mr.  Williams  prophesied,"  or  discussed,  as 
we  should  say,  "  the  topic  he  had  submitted ;  and  after,  the 
Governor  of  Plymouth  spoke  to  the  question ;  after  him,  the 
Elder ;  then  some  two  or  three  more  of  the  congregation. 
Then  the  Elder  desired  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  and 
Mr.  Wilson  to  speak  to  it,  which  they  did.  When  this  was 
ended,  the  deacon,  Mr.  Fuller,  put  the  congregation  in  mind 
of  the  contribution,  upon  which  the  Governor  and  all  the  rest 
went  down  to  the  deacon's  seat  and  put  into  the  bag,  and 
then  returned." 

Does  it  not  go  without  saying  that  a  body  of  people 
who  had  the  great  facts  and  the  inspiring  truths  of  the 
Scriptures  on  which  to  exercise  their  minds,  and  whose 
methods  of  considering  topics  were  such  as  are  here  de- 
scribed, and  who  were  trained  by  all  the  experiences  of  life 
to  a  free  expression  of  their  opinions,  were  not  entirely 
without  the  means  of  intellectual  as  well  as  spiritual 
quickening?  We  often  speak  of  the  lives  of  the  first  settlers 
in  our  New  England  wilderness  as  dull  and  narrow ;  and  it 
is  certainly  true  that  their  opportunities  for  culture  were 
narrow ;  but,  for  all  this,  they  did  some  high  thinking. 

Under  Cotton's  leadership  prayer  and  conference  meet- 
ings came  to  have  a  place  in  church  life  and  activity.  So 
far  as  appears,  up  to  the  time  of  his  pastorate,  all  the 


344  THE    PILGRIMS 

general  religious  exercises  of  the  Pilgrims  were  held  on 
Sunday.  Cotton  induced  the  church  to  begin  holding  meet- 
ings for  religious  conference  on  a  week-day. 
Prayer  and  These  conferences  were  held  monthly,  on  Satur- 
conference  <jay  afternoon,  preceding  the  communion.  This 
meetings  practise  was  continued  for  years.  At  a  later 
started  time,  under  the  pastorate  of  Cotton's  succes- 

sor, Rev.  Ephraim  Little,  it  was  decided  to 
broaden  out  this  plan,  and  start  neighborhood  meetings 
in  different  parts  of  the  town,  "  for  family  and  other  spiri- 
tual exercises."  In  those  old  days  there  was  much  praying 
as  well  as  preaching;  and  the  people  sought  to  grow  in 
grace  and  knowledge. 


xin 

Meantime  other  questions,  more  perplexing  even  than 
securing  suitable  pastors  when  the  pulpit  was  vacant,  had 
arisen,   and  other  trials  had  come  upon  the 
The  prob-      brave  little  church.     Growth  and  prosperity 
lem  of  brought  satisfaction ;    but  they  also  brought 

church  embarrassment.      Almost    before    these    fore- 

extension  fathers  of  ours  knew  it,  they  had  two  perplex- 
ing problems  on  their  hands  —  the  problem 
of  what  Dr.  Dawson  has  called  "  the  deadening  influence  of 
suburbanism,"  and  the  problem  of  "  Church-Extension." 
Instead  of  remaining  together  in  the  bonds  of  a  fellowship 
which  had  been  cemented  by  so  many  common  experiences 
of  hopes  realized  and  hopes  deferred,  of  joy  and  sorrow 
and  bitterest  heartaches,  it  seemed  to  be  the  intent  of 
Providence  that  they  should  be  separated  and  distributed 
in  different  directions.  The  lands  in  other  localities  were 
more  fertile  and  inviting  than  most  of  those  in  the  imme- 
diate neighborhood  of  the  original  settlement.  As  popula- 
tion increased  and  resources  multiplied,  larger  fields  and 
pastures  were  needed,  better  houses  and  barns,  more  promis- 
ing chances  for  the  investment  of  labor  and  skill,  and  a 
freer  sweep  in  general.  These  people  were  English,  be  it 
remembered,  and,  like  their  kindred  of  to-day,  they  wanted 


THE    PILGRIMS  345 

fresh  air  and  plenty  of  elbow-room.  Bradford  did  his 
best  to  keep  the  colony  unbroken;  and  strong  measures 
were  adopted  and  strong  influences  exerted  to  this  end.  It 
was  in  vain.  Expansion  was  in  the  air.  From  the  outset 
this  has  been  one  of  the  difficulties  here  in  America  — 
things  grow  so  fast  that  it  is  hard  work  to  keep  up  with 
the  demands  which  growth  creates.  The  colony  was  grow- 
ing, but  it  was  growing  like  a  tree  —  not  at  the  center, 
but  at  the  circumference. 

The  first  serious  break  came  in  the  removal  of  a  com- 
paratively large  number  of  important  men  to  what  came 
to  be  known  as  Duxbury.  This  was  in  1632. 
Removals  Four  years  earlier  some  of  the  colonists  had 
to  Dux-  begun  to  feel  their  way  into  the  occupancy  of 
tury  that  region.     Among  the  number  who  went  at 

the  date  just  named  were  Elder  Brewster  and 
his  two  sons,  Jonathan  and  Love.  The  father,  however, 
did  not  wholly  retire  from  Plymouth,  but  spent  a  portion 
of  his  time  there;  and  there,  as  the  later  writers  concede, 
he  died.  Standish,  likewise,  and  Alden,  Sampson,  Bassett, 
Soule,  Collier,  Mitchell,  and  others  of  their  strong  and 
enterprising  men,  joined  in  this  colonization  of  the  new 
town.  The  removal  of  so  many  of  this  type  of  citizens  at 
so  nearly  the  same  time  left  a  disheartening  gap  in  the  Ply- 
mouth settlement.  But  to  the  end  of  time  "  Captain's  Hill  " 
will  share  in  the  renown  of  the  "Rock,"  and  devout  souls 
will  feel  that  the  "  Nook  "  is  sacred  soil  because  it  was  once 
trodden  by  the  feet  of  Brewster. 

Quick  on  this  dispersion  there  came  another.  Marsh- 
field,  beautiful  for  situation  and  rich  in  agricultural  prom- 
ise, sprang  into  an  independent  community. 
Marshneld  The  loss  to  Plymouth,  by  this  change  of  resi- 
dence, will  be  appreciated  when  it  is  said  that 
Winslow  was  the  leader  in  the  movement.  The  more  one 
studies  the  Pilgrims  the  higher  will  be  the  esteem  felt 
for  the  ability  and  character  of  this  rare  man.  The  re- 
moval of  Winslow  took  along  with  him,  of  course,  his  step- 
son, Peregrine  White,  "  the  first  English  child  born  in  New 
England."  Three  of  his  brothers  also  became  residents  of 
Marshfield. 


346  THE    PILGRIMS 

Other  towns,  like  Scituate,  Barnstable,  Taunton,  Yar- 
mouth,   and   Sandwich,    sprang   up    at   about   this    same 
period;     but    the    original    settlers    of    them 
Other  came  from   places   outside  of   Plymouth,   and 

towns  though  they  received  accessions  from  the  old 

town,  they  did  not  draw  so  heavily  on  her 
citizens  as  Duxbury  and  Marshfield  had  done.  Still  there 
was  a  heavy  drain  going  on,  and  Plymouth  felt  it  in  all 
her  interests  and  activities. 

Indeed,  removals  were  so  many,  and  the  outlook  so  serious, 
that,  in  1644,  the  question  of  abandoning  Plymouth  in  a 
body  and  settling  down  in  some  more  eligible 
Abandoning  locality  was  taken  up  and  very  seriously  Con- 
Plymouth  sidered.  At  this  crisis  the  population  was  so 
debated  f ar   reduced   that   the   "  freemen   and   towns- 

men "  were  less  than  eighty.  The  movement  to 
go  elsewhere  was  led  by  the  members  of  the  church  for  the 
very  natural  reason  that  the  church  was  the  chief  sufferer 
from  this  steady  outflow.  With  a  diminishing  constituency 
it  would  be  more  and  more  difficult  to  maintain  preaching. 
With  the  Pilgrims  gospel  privileges  were  a  cardinal  neces- 
sity. Matters  went  so  far  that  land  was  purchased,  in 
the  name  of  the  church,  for  a  new  home  for  the  Plymouth 
people.  The  location  was  what  is  now  the  site  of  Eastham, 
on  Cape  Cod. 

On  further  examination  and  discussion  this  project  was 
given,  up ;  but  a  considerable  number  of  the  leading  men 
were  still  intent  on  removal,  and  on  removal  to 
Decision  the  place  just  named.  So  the  property  was 
to  remain  bought  from  the  church,  and  they  went  on 
and  started  a  new  town.  The  scheme  to  escape 
weakness  by  migration  failed;  but  the  agitation  resulted 
in  harm;  for  it  left  the  struggling  settlement  with  fewer 
citizens  and  more  limited  resources  than  when  the  question 
of  going  or  remaining  was  first  broached.  It  was  a  trying 
hour  for  Bradford ;  and  his  faith  and  courage  were  put  to 
one  of  their  severest  tests.  One  of  the  most  pathetic  pas- 
sages in  his  "  History  "  is  that  in  which  he  concludes  his 
account  of  the  condition  into  which  the  church  fell  in  conse- 
quence of  this  constant  depletion  in  their  numbers.    "  And 


THE    PILGRIMS  347 

thus  was  this  poor  church  left,  like  an  ancient  mother, 
grown  old,  and  forsaken  of  her  children,  though  not  in 
their  affections,  yet  in  regard  of  their  bodily  presence  and 
personal  helpfulness  —  her  ancient  members  being  most 
of  them  worn  away  by  death,  and  those  of  later  time  being 
like  children  translated  into  other  families,  and  she  like  a 
widow  left  only  to  trust  in  God.  Thus,  she  that  made  many 
rich  became  herself  poor." 


XIV 

A  wrong  impression  would  be  left  on  the  mind  of  the 
reader  were  nothing  to  be  said,  in  addition  to  the  incidental 
references  already  made  to  them,  concerning 
Other  min-  the  ministers  and  churches  of  the  colony 
isters  and  whose  fields  of  operation  were  outside  of 
churches         Plymouth. 

It  would  be  foolish  to  claim  that  the  ministers 
of  the  Pilgrim  settlement  were  equal  in  ability,  in  scholar- 
ship, in  reputation,  and  in  lasting  fame  and  influence,  to 
the  ministers  of  the  Puritan  settlement.  Cotton,  Wilson, 
and  the  Mathers  are  the  commanding  figures  of  that  early 
historic  period  in  Massachusetts.  Eliot  has  no  peer  in  the 
regard  of  subsequent  generations.  The  churches  of  Bos- 
ton had  numbers  and  wealth ;  and  they  could  command  the 
best  talent  to  be  found  in  the  dissenting  ranks ;  and  men 
distinguished  for  their  native  gifts  had  at  the  Bay  a  sub- 
stantial backing  for  effective  work  and  wide  ascendency. 

Were  the  comparisons  extended  to  the  other  New  Eng- 
land colonies  —  New  Haven  and  Hartford  —  the  same  con- 
clusion would  be  reached.  The  Plymouth  people  had  no 
man  in  their  permanent  pastorates  who  was  the  equal  of 
John  Davenport.  Still  less  had  they  any  man  who  could 
measure  up  to  the  large  stature  of  Thomas  Hooker,  of  Con- 
necticut. Roger  Williams,  of  Rhode  Island,  has  surpassed 
them  all  in  the  hold  which  he  has  taken  upon  the  world. 

But  while  it  would  show  a  lack  of  sound  discrimination 
to  insist  that  the  pastors  of  the  churches  in  the  Plymouth 
colony  were  equal  to  the  pastors  of  the  churches  in  the 


348  THE    PILGRIMS 

Bay  colony,  it  must  be  conceded  that  not  a  few  of  the  min- 
isters who  filled  the  pulpits  of  the  Pilgrim  towns  were  men 
of  exceptional  abilities  and  high  character.  They  had 
practical  sense;  they  were  scholars;  they  were  ahve  to 
the  demands  of  the  hour ;  they  were  devoted  to  their  work ; 
and  they  were  open-eyed  to  the  future  of  their  great 
venture  in  civil  and  ecclesiastical  democracy. 

The  names  of  some  of  these,  like  Rayner  and  Cotton  of 
Plymouth,  Chauncey,  who  in  the  course  of  his  career  on  this 
side  of  the  water  was  of  Plymouth,  Scituate,  and  Cam- 
bridge, Treat  of  Eastham,  who  did  such  a  worthy  and  suc- 
cessful work  among  the  Indians,  have  already  been  before  us ; 
and  others  will  be  in  other  connections.  It  seems  fit,  how- 
ever, to  note  more  specifically  two  or  three  men  who  were 
prominent  in  the  Old  Colony  pulpits,  and  whose  services 
were  of  marked  value. 

Ralph  Partridge,  who  was   settled  over  the  Duxbury 
church  in  1637,  and  who  held  his  place  till  his  death,  twenty- 
one  years  later,  was  a  leader  whose  abilities 
Ralph  Part-  were  widely  recognized.     He  was  driven  out 
ridge  0f  England  by  Laud,  and  he  never  forgot  the 

ideas  for  which  he  stood  and  for  which  he  had 
suffered.  He  was  associated  with  John  Cotton  and  Richard 
Mather  in  drawing  up  the  Cambridge  Platform. 

A  successor  of  Partridge,  though  the  second  from  him 
in  the  line  of  succession,  was  Ichabod  Wiswell.    He  was  born 
at  Dorchester,  in  the  Bay  colony.   Another  has 
Ichabod  described  him  as  "  a  man  of  learning,  power, 

Wiswell  an(j  sincerity."    He  was  all  this  and  more.    He 

was  intensely  patriotic,  and  as  dauntless  as  a 
lion.  It  was  Wiswell  who  was  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  Andros, 
when  he  was  the  agent  of  a  bigoted  and  tyrannical  king, 
in  his  efforts  to  reduce  the  colonists  to  a  complete  subjec- 
tion, and  who  defiantly  endured  the  pain  and  humiliation 
which  he  had  to  suffer  in  consequence.  It  was  Wiswell  who 
was  sent  over  to  England,  in  1691,  to  make  protest  against 
the  merging  of  the  Plymouth  colony  in  the  Bay  colony. 
He  failed  in  his  purpose,  as  was  well;  but  it  shows  the 
standing  of  the  man,  and  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held, 
that  he  was  chosen  for  this  important  service. 


THE    PILGRIMS  349 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  two  men  who  were  associated 
with  the  church  at  Taunton,  the  one  as  pastor  and  the 
other  as  teacher,  should  have  been  associated, 
Nicholas  though  in  the  reverse  order,  with  Davenport's 
Street  church,  —  the  First  Church  of  Christ,  or  as 

it  is  more  popularly  known,  the  "  Old  Center 
Church,"  in  New  Haven.  William  Hooke,  supposed  to  be 
an  Oxford  graduate,  was  the  first  pastor  of  the  church  at 
Taunton.  He  had  for  his  associate  Nicholas  Street,  who 
is  also  supposed  to  have  been  graduated  from  Oxford. 
Hooke  left  Taunton  and  went  to  New  Haven  and  allied 
himself  with  Davenport.  Street  succeeded  to  the  office  of 
pastor.  Hooke  was  a  relative  of  Cromwell;  and  when 
things  grew  hot  in  England,  he  left  New  Haven  and  went 
back  to  his  native  land  to  be  near  to  the  great  leader  of  the 
Revolution.  Street  succeeded  him  again.  He  resigned  at 
Taunton,  and  accepted  a  call  to  the  office  of  teacher  in  the 
New  Haven  church.  When  Davenport  went  to  Boston, 
Street  became  pastor,  and  in  that  office  he  continued  until 
he  died.  He  was  thus  thought  worthy  to  be  a  link  in  the 
chain  of  succession  which  was  to  begin  with  John  Daven- 
port, and  include  the  illustrious  names  of  Taylor  and 
Bacon.  Dr.  Bacon  says  of  him :  "  He  appears  to  have 
been  a  pious,  judicious,  modest  man."  He  says  further, 
that  his  writings  "  show  great  clearness  of  thought,  and 
some  pungency  of  style."  "  That  he  was  no  inferior 
preacher,"  he  continues,  "  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  he  was  found  worthy  to  succeed  Mr.  Hooke,  and  that 
he  maintained  his  standing  as  the  colleague  of  Mr. 
Davenport." 

Besides  these  who  have  had  special  mention,  there  were 
others  in  the  colony  who  deserve  to  be  kept  in  remem- 
brance, both  for  what  they  were  and  for  what 
Worthy  of  they  did.  Lothrop,  of  Barnstable,  was  a  man 
remem-  0f  clear  brain,  deep  convictions,  and  eminent 

brance  usefulness;    Newman,  of  Rehoboth,  while  vig- 

orously pushing  the  interests  of  the  town, 
and  making  full  proof  of  his  ministry,  found  time  to 
revise  and  reissue  his  "  Cambridge  Concordance."  Sam- 
uel Lee,  of  Bristol,  was  a  somewhat  eccentric  character; 


350  THE    PILGRIMS 

but  he  had  the  power  of  a  positive  personality.  Keith, 
of  Bridgewater,  did  good  service,  and  left  behind  him  a 
fragrant  memory.  There  came  a  time  in  the  history  of  the 
Plymouth  colony  when  the  tides  of  religion  were  at  ebb; 
but  there  never  came  a  time  when  the  Pilgrim  churches 
did  not  have  a  less  or  larger  number  of  men  in  their  pulpits 
who,  in  virtue  of  their  ability,  their  attainments,  and  their 
character,  were  fitted  to  do  good  work  for  the  Master. 

The  mother  church,  as  we  have  seen,  remained  at  Ply- 
mouth, and  was  more  prosperous  in  the  last  thirty  years  of 
the  century  than  it  had  been  in  the  preceding  fifty  years. 
This  church  has  had  other  severe  trials  in  the  course  of  its 
history ;  and  it  has  known  what  it  is  to  be  turned  and  over- 
turned; but,  a  vine  of  the  Lord's  planting  and  the  Pil- 
grim's watering,  it  still  lives  and  witnesses  to  the  truth  at 
Plymouth  Rock. 


XVI 

SETTING    UP    SCHOOLS 


Viewed  from  any  angle,  ignorance  is  the  costliest  crop  that  can  be  raised 
in  any  part  of  this  Union.  .  .  .  The  public  school  is  not  merely  the  educa- 
tional center  for  the  mass  of  our  people,  but  is  the  factory  of  American 
citizenship.  —  Theodore  Roosevelt. 

America  in  the  making  was  intelligent,  moral,  religious,  and  religiously 
devoted  to  the  education  of  children.  —  Whitelaw  Reid. 

Our  public  school  system  is  unquestionably  the  most  distinctively  Amer- 
ican institution  which  this  country  has  produced;  and  since  that  great 
civil  contest  between  the  two  civilizations  of  the  North  and  the  South  was 
settled  by  the  war  of  secession,  this  system  has  been  growing  to  a  greater  and 
greater  importance.  —  William  A.  Mowry. 

As  an  innovation  upon  all  preexisting  policy  and  usage,  the  establish- 
ment of  free  schools  was  the  boldest  ever  promulgated  since  the  commence- 
ment of  this  Christian  era.  As  a  theory,  it  could  have  been  refuted  and 
silenced  by  a  more  formidable  array  of  arguments  and  experience  than  was 
ever  marshaled  against  any  other  opinion  of  human  origin.  But  time  has 
ratified  its  soundness.  The  centuries  now  proclaim  it  to  be  as  wise  as  it  was 
courageous,  as  beneficent  as  it  was  disinterested.  —  Horace  Mann. 

One  of  the  most  memorable  events  in  the  history  of  the  Commonwealth 
is  the  establishment,  for  the  first  time  in  the  world,  of  free  public  schools 
supported  by  a  general  tax.  The  early  colonists  seemed  to  have  an  intuitive 
idea  that  a  free  state  and  free  public  schools  hold  the  relation  of  dependence 
on  each  other.  They  had  no  sooner  come  to  the  land  which  they  had  chosen 
for  their  new  home,  and  had  provided  for  their  immediate  physical  wants, 
and  had  erected  their  simple  places  of  worship,  than  they  established  schools 
for  the  free  education  of  all  the  children.  — J.  W.  Dickinson. 

Not  only  the  success  of  our  democracy,  but  the  skill,  thrift,  fortunes, 
thinking,  and  happiness  of  the  people,  and  therefore  the  moral  greatness  of 
the  Nation,  depend  upon  providing  a  school  for  every  child  and  making  sure 
that  he  goes  to  it.  —  Andrew  S.  Draper. 

We  should  ever  promote,  as  an  object  of  primary  importance,  institutions 
for  the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge ;  for  it  is  essential  that  public  opinion 
should  be  enlightened.  —  George  Washington. 


XVI 

SETTING  UP  SCHOOLS 

IN  turning  to  the  attitude  of  the  Pilgrims  towards 
schools  we  must  be  prepared  for  a  double  surprise  — 
first,  that  so  much  was  really  done,  and  second,  that  so 
little  was  said  about  it  in  the  records  of  the  time.  Neither 
in  their  laws,  nor  annals,  nor  incidental  narratives  of  the 
early  years  at  Plymouth  do  schools  cut  any  considerable 
figure.  It  was  to  be  expected  that  in  the  first  stages  of  the 
settlement  of  the  colony  but  little  attention  could  be  given 
to  the  subject  of  education.  The  fight  was  for  bread  and 
a  secure  foothold.  At  no  time,  however,  was  education 
neglected.  From  the  outset  "  the  hearts  of  the  fathers  were 
turned  to  the  children." 


In  his  "  History "  Bradford  makes  no  mention  of  the 
training  of  the  young  until  the  year  1624,  save  that  he 
names  the  proper  training  of  them  as  one  of 
First  men-    the  reasons  for  leaving  Leyden.    In  his  chapter 
tion  of  for  t-ne  year  just  indicated  he  replied  to  a  criti- 

traimng  c[sm  wnich  had  been  made  on  the  colony.  The 
the  young  criticism  was  to  the  effect  that  the  children 
of  the  Pilgrims  were  neither  taught  to  read, 
nor  to  recite  the  catechism.  Our  author  declares  that 
the  report  was  not  true.  On  the  contrary  he  asserts  that 
"  divers  take  pains  with  their  own  as  they  can ;  indeed,  we 
have  no  common  school  for  want  of  a  fit  person,  or  hitherto 
means  to  maintain  one;   though  we  desire  now  to  begin." 

23 


354  THE    PILGRIMS 

Here,  were  both  the  germ  and  the  prophecy  of  what  was  to 
be  —  schools  for  all  the  children  and  all  the  children  in 
the  schools. 

Concerning  the  training  of  children  in  those  first  years 
at  Plymouth  two  facts  are  to  be  kept  in  mind. 

The  first  is  that  there  were  not  many  children 
Not  many  to  be  trained.  Of  the  twelve  children  brought 
children  to  Plymouth  by  the  Mayflower  only  seven  sur- 
vived the  fatal  sickness  of  the  first  winter. 
How  many  children  were  included  in  the  families  of  the 
Ley  den  church  which  came  over  in  the  Fortune  in  1621 ; 
or  in  the  Anne  and  Little  James  in  1623 ;  or  in  the  May- 
flower in  1629;  or  in  the  Handmaid  in  1630,  does  not 
appear  from  any  statements  now  at  hand.  There  were 
some,  but  not  many.  Nor  was  the  increase  of  children  from 
births  very  rapid  during  the  first  few  years.  There  were 
children  enough  to  have  called  for  a  school  had  there  been 
any  teacher  available,  or  money  to  meet  the  expenses ;  but 
the  numbers  were  not  large. 

The  second  fact  to  be  kept  in  mind  is  that  the  Pilgrims 
had  had  a  first-class  experience  in  family  training.     They 
had  lived  for  twelve  years  in  Holland.     There 
Family  were  schools;    but  the  teaching  was  in  a  for- 

trainmg  ejgn  tongue.  Especially  solicitous  for  the  wel- 
fare of  their  children,  and  eager  to  hold  them 
in  loyalty  to  the  speech,  and  customs  of  the  dear  land  from 
which  they  had  been  driven,  it  was  only  natural  that  exiles 
should  turn  every  home  into  a  schoolhouse  and  make  the 
education  of  their  offspring  an  important  part  of  their 
domestic  economy.  When  these  people  set  up  their  homes 
in  the  wilderness,  they  were  not  only  alive  to  the  necessity 
and  value  of  a  proper  training  for  those  who  were  to  come 
after  them,  but  they  were  in  some  ways  peculiarly  fitted 
for  the  task.  Men  of  the  intelligence  and  character  of 
Bradford,  Brewster,  Winslow,  and  Fuller  were  sufficient 
pledge  that  the  youth  of  their  little  community  would  not 
be  permitted  to  grow  up  in  ignorance,  even  though  the  time 
had  not  yet  come  for  starting  a  common  school.  Besides, 
men  of  the  second  generation,  like  William  Bradford,  Jr., 
Josiah  Winslow,  Thomas  Cushman,  and  others,  who,  as 


THE    PILGRIMS  355 

Davis  says,  "  were  reared  under  parental  education  alone," 
show  how  wise  and  thorough  the  training  must  have  been. 

These  two  facts  shed  not  a  little  light  on  the  situation. 
There  were  no  schools  at  first,  not  alone  because  there  was 
no  teacher,  and  no  money  to  support  a  school,  but  because 
the  need  was  not  pressing.  Imparting  knowledge  to  the 
young,  training  them  into  habits  of  thoughtfulness,  im- 
pressing them  with  a  sense  of  the  worth  of  industry  and 
virtue,  were  fundamental  to  the  ideas  of  the  Pilgrims, 
and  a  part  of  the  vital  breath  of  their  domestic,  religious, 
and  civic  systems. 

II 

It  is  evident  that  the  hope  expressed  by  the  governor 
when  he  wrote,  as  in  a  preceding  paragraph,  that  there  was 
no  common  school  in  Plymouth,  but  threw  out 
Schools  the   intimation   that   there   would   be    such   a 

started  school  in  no  long  time,  was  realized  very  soon, 

early  por  incidental  references  make  it  clear  that 

schoolmasters  were  abroad  at  an  early  date. 
In  the  footnote  found  in  his  "History  of  New  England," Dr. 
Palfrey  says  that  an  ancestress  of  his,  who  was  a  daughter 
of  John  Howland  and  Elizabeth  Tilley,  and  hence  one  of 
the  first  generation  of  children  born  to  the  Pilgrims  on 
these  shores,  "  signed  her  name  in  her  old  age,  as  adminis- 
tratrix of  her  husband's  estate  in  an  almost  clerkly  hand." 
Somebody  was  doing  some  satisfactory  teaching.  Either 
the  professional  instructor  of  youth  had  appeared  and  set  up 
in  business,  or  family  instruction  was  all  that  has  just  been 
claimed  for  it.  But  there  is  a  more  convincing  proof  of  the 
existence  of  the  school.  In  1635,  a  boy,  eight  years  of  age, 
by  the  name  of  Eaton,  was  apprenticed  to  Bridget  Fuller 
under  terms  which  required  her  "  to  keep  him  at  school  two 
years."  This  implies  schools  in  full  operation.  It  is  pos- 
sible, of  course,  that  all  which  is  meant  by  it  is  that  the  lad 
was  to  have  the  benefit  of  family  training,  after  some  regu- 
lar sort,  for  the  period  named ;  but  this  is  not  likely.  The 
stipulation  looks  to  the  existence  of  a  school  to  which  the 
boy  might  go  and  be  taught.    In  the  first  class  which  gradu- 


356  THE    PILGRIMS 

a  ted  from  Harvard  in  1642,  Plymouth  had  a  representative. 
In  the  class  of  1650  there  was  another  graduate  from  the 
Old  Colony.  Unquestionably  these  young  men  must  have 
been  fitted  for  college,  in  part  at  least,  by  private  tuition. 
Such  incidents,  however,  show  the  estimate  placed  by  the 
Pilgrims  on  learning,  and  the  atmosphere  of  eager  desire 
for  learning  which  pervaded  the  community.  With  the 
Bible  what  it  was  to  them,  and  with  a  Bible  in  all  probability 
in  every  home  —  for  neither  the  King  James  Version  nor 
the  Geneva  Version,  the  one  they  would  be  most  likely  to 
use,  was  at  that  time  so  expensive  as  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of 
the  people  in  general  —  it  might  go  almost  without  saying 
that  these  devout  and  earnest  men,  who  had  crossed  the 
seas  in  order  that  they  might  build  their  church,  and  conduct 
their  homes  and  their  state  on  the  principles  of  the  Word  of 
God,  would  see  to  it  that  their  children  were  sufficiently 
instructed  to  read  its  sacred  pages  for  themselves. 


ni 

It  was  forty  years  after  the  landing  at  Plymouth  before 
positive  enactments  on  the  subject  of  education  began  to 
appear  on  the  statute  books.  In  1663  vigorous 
Legislation  steps  seem  to  have  been  taken.  Towns  —  not 
on  school  0nly  Plymouth  but  other  towns  which  had 
question  grown  out  of  the  original  settlement,  like  Dux- 
bury,  Marshfield,  and  the  rest  of  them  —  were 
required  by  the  court,  the  law-making  body,  to  take  into 
serious  consideration  the  matter  of  securing  schoolmasters, 
"  to  train  up  children  to  reading  and  writing."  Nothing 
beyond  a  wholesome  agitation  of  the  question  came  of  this 
move.  But  all  the  while  the  subject  of  schools  was  in  the 
air.  Four  or  five  years  after  the  above  action  by  the  court, 
one  John  Morton,  a  nephew  of  the  Nathaniel  Morton  who 
was  so  long  secretary  of  the  colony,  came  forward  and 
*  offered  to  teach  children  and  youth  of  the  town  to  read 
and  write  and  cast  accounts,  on  reasonable  considerations." 
This  offer  was  not  accepted  at  once ;  but  in  1671  the  town 
fell  in  with  the  proposition  and  the  school  was  started. 


THE    PILGRIMS  357 

Meantime,  in  1670,  very  important  legislation  had  been 
enacted.  The  court  made  a  grant  of  all  the  profits  annu- 
ally accruing  to  the  colony  "  for  fishing  with  nets  or  seines 
at  Cape  Cod  for  mackerel,  bass,  or  herrings,  to  be  improved 
for  and  towards  a  free  school  in  some  town  in  this  jurisdic- 
tion, provided  a  beginning  was  made  within  one  year  of  the 
grant."  This  income  fell  to  the  mother  town  and  went  to 
the  support  of  the  school  with  which  Morton  was  identified. 
Later,  in  1672,  additional  support  was  given  to  the  school. 
The  town  voted  unanimously  to  devote  the  profits  of  "  their 
lands  at  Sipican  and  Agawam  and  places  adjacent"  to- 
wards the  maintenance  of  "  a  free  school  now  begun  or 
erected  at  Plymouth."  These  lands  were  to  be  "  improved 
and  employed  "  for  this  purpose ;  and  the  funds  derived 
from  them  were  to  be  set  apart  and  sacredly  devoted  to  the 
support  of  learning. 

This  school  was  to  be  a  classical  as  well  as  an  elementary 
school.    Up  to  this  time  the  course  of  study  had  been  more 

closely  confined  to  the  rudiments.  Owing  to 
Classical  differences  of  opinion  among  the  people  as  to 
school  too  the  value  to  them  in  their  circumstances  and 
advanced        stage  of  development  of  classical  learning,  this 

school  in  its  advanced  form  had  its  ups  and 
downs.  The  free  features  of  it,  however,  had  a  secure  place 
in  the  common  confidence;  and,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
succeeding  century,  the  free  school  became  an  accepted  and 
abiding  policy  of  the  new  community. 


IV 

The  claim  has  been  made  that  the  Old  Colony  is  entitled 
to  the  honor  of  having  set  up  "  the  first  free  school  ordained 
by  law  in  New  England."  Thacher,  in  his 
Claim  the  «  History  of  Plymouth,"  makes  this  assertion, 
first  free  Davis,  in  his  "  Ancient  Landmarks,"  reaffirms 
school  the  statement.    The  claim  is  based  on  the  estab- 

lishment of  the  school  just  mentioned.     The 
claim  will  hardly  hold. 

About  the  middle  of  the  last  decade  a  committee  was  ap- 


858  THE    PILGRIMS 

pointed  by  the  proper  authorities  in  Massachusetts  to  ascer- 
tain along  with  one  other  object  which  was  specified,  the  ex- 
act locality  of  "  the  first  free  public  school "  in 
Investiga-  the  commonwealth.  This  action  was  taken  with 
tion  by  a  yjew  to  marking  the  site,  if  found,  with  a 

committee  suitable  monument.  One  who  has  any  f  amiliar- 
ity  with  the  early  history  of  the  old  Bay  State 
will  readily  understand  that  there  must  have  been  many 
contestants  for  this  signal  honor.  Boston,  Charlestown, 
Salem,  Dorchester,  Newbury,  Ipswich,  Duxbury,  and  other 
towns,  as  well  as  Plymouth,  would  be  sure  to  put  in  their 
proofs  of  priority  in  a  competition  so  commendable.  Natur- 
ally one  would  think  that  the  search  for  a  fact  like  this 
might  have  been  rewarded  with  success.     It  was  not. 

The  committee  felt  obliged  to  report  that  the  place, 
where  "  the  first  free  public  school  supported  by  general 
taxation  was  started,  could  not  be  satisfactorily 
Report  of  determined.  The  trouble  in  settling  the  ques- 
committee  tion  grows  out  of  the  fact  that  many  of  the 
earliest  town  records  are  lost,  while  those  which 
have  been  preserved  are  often  so  meager  and  uncertain 
as  to  be  of  little  or  no  value  in  helping  to  trustworthy  con- 
clusions." It  is  very  clear  that  the  honor  does  not  belong 
to  Plymouth.  It  is  equally  clear  that  Plymouth  was  in  line 
with  other  towns  —  with  other  and  very  much  larger  and 
wealthier  towns  in  the  Bay  colony  —  in  making  provisions 
for  free  public  schools. 


It  is  a  matter  of  small  concern,  however,  whether  the 
system  of  free  schools,  such  as  we  have  come  to  know  it  in 
the  United  States,  originated  in  one  colony  or 
Free  another,  or  in  one  town  or  another.     It  was  a 

schools  a  magnificent  achievement.  There  is  "  glory 
glorious  enough  in  it  to  go  round  "  and  afford  to  each 
achieve-  an  abundant  share.  Both  these  colonies  and 
ment  a]j  these  towns  took  advance  ground.    Made  up 

largely  of  the  "  common  people,"  they  came 
easily  and  quickly  into  the  apprehension  and  under  the 


THE    PILGRIMS  359 

domination  of  ideas  on  education  which  no  English  cabinet 
has  been  able  even  yet  to  reach.  No  human  eye  can  pene- 
trate the  future,  and  forecast  what  changes  in  opinions  and 
methods  the  unfolding  years  may  disclose ;  but,  from  pres- 
ent points  of  view,  it  is  difficult  to  anticipate  an  age  when 
the  free  schools,  which  were  established  by  the  Pilgrims  in 
the  Old  Colony  and  by  the  Puritans  in  the  Bay  colony,  will 
not  continue  to  be  one  of  the  chief  distinctions  of  the  com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts  and  of  our  great  republic. 

"  From  the  cold  northern  pine, 
Far  toward  the  burning  line, 
Spreads  the  luxuriant  vine 
Bending  with  fruit." 


XVII 

DEVELOPMENT   OF    THEIR    LAWS 


In  that  land  the  great  experiment  was  to  be  made,  by  civilized  man,  of 
the  attempt  to  construct  society  upon  a  new  basis ;  and  it  was  there,  for  the 
first  time,  that  theories  hitherto  unknown,  or  deemed  impracticable,  were  to 
exhibit  a  spectacle  for  which  the  world  had  not  been  prepared  by  the  history 
of  the  past.  —  Alexis  De  Tocqueville. 

The  English  Colonies,  having  been  founded  as  private  enterprises,  some 
of  them  under  the  protection  of  Royal  Charters,  were  freer  than  those  of 
Spain,  Portugal,  and  France,  to  work  out,  amidst  their  novel  environments, 
an  original  system  of  government,  and  to  form  distinct  social  habits  and 
customs ;  and  therefore,  though  moulded  on  ancestral  models,  they  were  not 
direct  reflections  of  European  originals. — James  Douglas. 

Their  government  was  not  like  the  Constitution  under  which  our  nation 
now  lives,  moulded  and  shaped  and  perfect  as  a  whole.  It  was  evolved  from 
a  simple  germ,  demanding  and  receiving  new  treatment  as  it  grew,  and 
finding  in  the  practical  hands  of  its  projectors  a  ready  application  of  remedies 
for  defects,  of  measures  for  the  removal  of  obstacles,  of  new  laws  for  new 
requirements,  and  new  officers  for  new  labors  and  duties. 

William  T.  Davis. 

He  who  believes  that  the  early  legislation  of  New  England  was  distin- 
guished, in  its  time,  by  the  severity  of  its  penalties,  knows  little  of  the  history 
of  Criminal  laws  in  Great  Britain  or  America. 

J.  Hammond  Trumbull. 


XVII 
DEVELOPMENT    OF   THEIR   LAWS 

WE  have  seen  on  what  foundation  the  civil  govern- 
ment of  the  Pilgrims  was  erected.  It  was  on  the 
basis  of  equal  rights  and  common  duties.  No 
man  might  claim  privileges  which  were  denied  to  other  men ; 
nor  shrink  from  meeting  obligations  which  rested  on  all 
alike.  In  the  compact  which  had  been  adopted,  King 
James  was  recognized  as  sovereign;  and  by  implication, 
if  not  by  definite  avowal,  the  laws  of  England  were  regarded 
as  of  binding  force.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the 
colony,  while  acknowledging  the  sovereignty  of  the  king, 
was  yet  a  sovereignty  in  itself.  As  the  great  author  of 
"  Democracy  in  America  "  says :  "  They  exercised  the  rights 
of  sovereignty;  they  named  their  magistrates,  concluded 
peace  or  declared  war,  made  police  regulations,  and  enacted 
laws  as  if  their  allegiance  was  due  only  to  God."  It  was 
a  democratic  sovereignty,  and  its  affairs  were  managed 
after  a  democratic  fashion.  These  plain  Englishmen  made 
and  administered  their  own  laws.  Questions  of  public  con- 
cern were  discussed  and  settled  in  popular  assemblies. 
Power  was  lodged  in  the  people.  Governors  ruled  by  con- 
sent of  the  governed.  It  was  for  the  body  politic  to  de- 
termine who  should  be  magistrates,  and  what  should  be  the 
measure  of  authority  wielded  by  them,  and  how  long  they 
should  hold  office. 


At  the  outset  everything  was  simple.  The  government 
was  run  with  the  least  possible  machinery.  That  great 
achievement  and  instrument  of  justice  —  trial  by  jury  — 
was  recognized  and  set  up.    With  no  lawyers,  and  not  much 


364  THE    PILGRIMS 

law,  and  few  cases  to  be  tried,  juries  for  a  long  time  were 
little  other  than  boards  of  arbitration.  There  was  a  gov- 
ernor, and,  until  1624,  only  a  single  assistant ; 
Government  though  at  this  date  the  number  was  increased 
simple  at  to  five,  and  at  a  later  date  to  seven.  The  head 
the  outset  0f  the  little  state  could  give  advice,  look  after 
the  general  interests,  execute  orders,  and  as- 
sume responsibility  in  emergencies ;  but  he  was  servant 
and  not  master.  This  was  all  these  chief  officials  aspired 
to  be  —  servants  and  not  masters.  On  occasion,  when 
distinguished  visitors  were  to  be  received,  or  Indian  chiefs 
and  their  braves  were  to  be  impressed,  the  airs  of  royalty 
were  sometimes  assumed  and  the  formalities  of  state  were  ob- 
served by  these  chosen  leaders.  In  general  there  was  no 
official  pomp,  no  pride  of  position,  no  theatrical  displays 
of  the  badges  of  a  little  brief  authority,  and  no  noise  in  the 
administration  of  law.  Attempts  in  this  direction  would 
have  been  ludicrous ;  but  there  was  no  disposition  to  strut 
and  parade.  The  men  at  the  top  wrought  on  equal  terms 
with  the  men  at  the  bottom.  Whether,  without  exception, 
they  all  prayed  for  their  daily  bread  we  may  not  know,  but 
they  all  toiled  for  it.  The  first  governor  of  the  colony 
was  stricken  with  his  fatal  illness  while  engaged  in  plant- 
ing his  fields.  Under  God,  the  state  stood  for  equal  rights, 
for  order  and  justice  and  safety  on  the  simplest  terms  and 
in  the  simplest  way,  and  for  nothing  else. 

II 

For  a  decade  and  a  half  the  Plymouth  colonists  had  no 
fundamental  law  except  the  compact  which  had  been  drawn 

up  and  signed  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower. 
Revision  Indeed,  the  colony  never  had  any  other  funda- 
and  mental  law.      In  this  instrument   there  were 

codification  two  guiding  principles,  and  only  two  —  alle- 
of  laws  giance  to  the  king  and  the  right  of  the  major- 

needed  Jty  to  rule.     The  latter  principle  held  in  it  all 

sorts  of  possibilities  for  democracy,  and  very 
distinct  prophecies  of  what  was  to  be  in  the  future.  From 
the  day  of  its  adoption  by  the  Pilgrims  until  now  it  has 


THE    PILGRIMS  365 

not  lost  any  of  its  vital  force.  It  has  gained  rather  in  the 
confidence  of  mankind.  The  corner-stone  of  their  little 
republic,  it  is  the  corner-stone  of  our  great  republic,  the 
republic  which  has  come  to  be  the  mightiest  and  happiest 
nation  on  earth. 

But  something  beyond  this  was  found  to  be  necessary. 
For  though  the  compact  had  been  adopted,  and  it  had 
been  determined  that  equality  of  rights  should  be  the  con- 
trolling factor  in  their  legislation,  the  form  of  govern- 
ment, the  number  and  duties  of  officials,  the  limitations  of 
authority,  courts  and  juries,  police  and  military  regula- 
tions, the  applicability  of  English  statutes  to  themselves, 
and  other  details  of  administration,  were  matters  still  to 
be  worked  out  and  settled. 

In  an  important  passage  bearing  on  this  point,  Baylies, 
in  his  "  History  of  New  Plymouth,"  says :  "  No  laws  were 
made  for  the  general  organization  of  the  gov- 
The  facts  eminent ;  the  limits  of  political  rights  and 
set  forth  political  powers  were  not  defined;  the  gover- 
nors and  assistants  maintained  their  small 
portion  of  authority  rather  by  common  consent  than  by 
lawful  delegation  of  power.  The  royal  authority  was 
recognized,  and  the  laws  of  England  were  considered  as 
having  force  in  the  colony,  unless  altered  or  repealed  by 
colonial  statutes ;  but  it  was  very  difficult  to  ascertain 
the  character,  authority,  and  force  of  those  laws."  The 
same  author  goes  on  to  say :  "  Crimes  and  punishments 
were  neither  declared  nor  defined.  .  .  .  The  only  magis- 
trates were  the  governors  and  assistants.  The  office  of 
justice  of  the  peace  was  unknown.  Trials  were  had  in  the 
general  court  before  juries  selected  from  the  whole  body 
of  the  freemen  of  the  colony ;  and  until  1634  the  Governor 
and  assistants  were  not  by  law  considered  a  judicial  court. 
The  magistrates  had  no  jurisdiction  of  civil  actions,  and 
in  criminal  offenses  their  jurisdiction  was  confined  to  the 
power  of  '  binding  over '  the  accused  to  appear  at  the 
general  court." 

To  illustrate  the  condition  of  things  here  portrayed,  it 
may  be  said  that  there  were  no  laws  on  the  statute  books 
covering  the  mutual  relations  and  obligations  of  husbands 


366  THE    PILGRIMS 

and  wives,  of  parents  and  children,  of  masters  and  servants. 
There  were  no  laws  touching  the  probate  of  wills  and  the 
administration  of  estates,  save  that  the  governor  and  his 
assistants  were  authorized  to  discharge  these  functions. 
There  were  few,  if  any,  applicable  to  the  many  questions 
likely  to  arise  in  the  contact  of  the  colonists  with  the 
Indians.  They  had  policies  in  regard  to  the  wise  way  of 
dealing  with  the  Indians,  but  their  policies  were  not  yet 
defined  in  laws.  There  were  laws  declaring  every  person 
within  the  jurisdiction  liable  to  the  performance  of  military 
duty.  There  were  enactments  concerning  fishing,  hunting, 
damages  committed  by  domestic  animals,  and  setting  fires 
in  the  woods.  There  were  other  legal  regulations,  though 
for  the  most  part  these  were  only  temporary  expedients  or 
devices.  For  fifteen  years  the  statute  books  of  the  Ply- 
mouth colony  were  exceedingly  bare  of  the  traces  of 
legislation. 

How  then  were  rights  secured,  order  maintained,  and 
progress  registered?     The  answer  is  at  hand.     The  deep 
and  pervading  sense  of  equality,  the  general 
How  rights    respect  for  what  was  fair  and  right,  the  laws 
weTe  of   the   fatherland   so   far   as   they   could  be 

secured  adapted  to  the  needs  of  a  people  in  circum- 

stances so  unlike  those  of  the  people  for  whom 
they  were  originally  intended,  and  the  fine  spirit  and  pur- 
pose of  the  members  of  it,  kept  the  colony  on  right  lines 
and  moving  straight  forward  to  its  high  destiny.  The 
state  was  sovereign ;  it  exercised  sovereign  powers ;  still 
it  had  only  a  few  laws.  Order  was  maintained,  justice  was 
administered,  the  general  welfare  was  promoted,  and  a 
large  measure  of  happiness  was  secured ;  but  it  was  all  on 
the  basis  of  democratic  equality.  Nor  is  this  all  that  is  to 
be  said.  These  achievements  and  these  results  had  been 
brought  to  pass,  not  in  virtue  of  a  complete  system  of  laws, 
but  after  a  kind  of  opportunist  fashion.  It  was  a  day-by- 
day  proceeding,  a  political  living  from  hand  to  mouth, 
meeting  each  exigency  as  it  arose.  It  helps  to  show  with 
how  few  laws  good  people  can  get  on.  It  also  helps  to 
show  that  even  good  people,  placed  in  a  world  like  ours, 
and  having  their  own  human  nature  to  contend  with,  sooner 


THE    PILGRIMS  367 

or  later  discover  that  a  well-defined,  well-ordered,  and  well- 
equipped  government  is  essential  to  peace  and  prosperity. 


ni 

In  1636,  a  signal  advance  was  made  by  the  colonists  in 
the  adoption  of  a  definite  system  of  laws.     As  has  been 

said,  the  compact  drawn  up  and  signed  in  the 
System  of  caDin  of  the  Mayflower  was  the  fundamental 
laws  ]aw  0f  ^.ne  new  state.     In  their  legislation  the 

adopted  Pilgrims   were  guided  by   the  conception   of 

equal  rights  and  common  duties  announced  in 
this  great  instrument.  They  also  found  warrant  and  direc- 
tion for  their  enactments  in  the  patent  which  had  been 
granted  to  them  in  1621  through  John  Pierce  by  the 
company  that  was  charged  with  the  affairs  of  New  Eng- 
land. So,  too,  they  were  helped  in  knowing  what  they 
might  and  might  not  do  by  the  patent  issued  to  William 
Bradford  in  1629.  But  their  laws,  as  there  has  been  oc- 
casion to  say  already,  were  largely  temporary  expedients. 
They  were  framed  and  passed  to  meet  the  exigency  of  the 
hour.  It  was  only  natural,  therefore,  at  the  end  of  this 
period  of  fifteen  years,  for  the  leaders  to  feel  that  the 
time  had  come  for  a  thorough  examination  and  complete 
overhauling  of  their  statutes.  It  appears  from  the  record 
that  on  the  assembling  of  the  general  court  in  1636  the 
laws  of  the  colony  were  read.  Since  there  were  not  many 
of  these  laws  it  would  not  take  long  to  go  over  them.  On 
listening  to  them,  it  was  found  that  "  divers  of  them  were 
worthy  the  reforming,  others  the  rejecting,  and  others  fit 
to  be  instituted  and  made."  Thereupon,  a  committee  of 
eight,  from  the  three  towns  of  Plymouth,  Duxbury,  and 
Scituate,  was  appointed  to  cooperate  with  the  governor 
and  his  assistants  in  revising  existing  statutes  and  pro- 
posing such  others  as  seemed  to  be  necessary.  From  this 
time  on  the  Pilgrims  had  a  consistent  body  of  laws  —  a 
code.  This  code  was  the  deliberate  and  authoritative  ex- 
pression of  their  ideas  of  the  way  in  which  justice  was  to 
be  administered  and  order  in  the  community  best  pro- 


368  THE    PILGRIMS 

moted.  Laws  are  photographs,  not  of  ideal,  but  of  the 
actual  conditions  of  a  people  at  the  time  they  are  passed. 
Examining  these  laws  to-day,  we  see  in  them  the  spirit  of 
the  men  who  made  them ;  the  evils  which  they  encountered ; 
the  tendencies  they  dreaded;  the  conception  of  right-deal- 
ing between  man  and  man  which  they  entertained;  the 
measure  of  restraint  which  they  thought  ought  to  be 
thrown  about  wrong-doing,  and  the  kind  and  degree  of 
encouragement  which  they  deemed  it  wise  to  extend  to 
industry  and  thrift,  to  honest  and  earnest  living. 


IV 

Associated  with  the  adoption  of  this  code  of  laws  there 
was  an  avowal  of  rights  made  by  these  sturdy  democratic 
legislators  well  worthy  of  reverent  study  by 
Declaration  their  descendants.  In  this  avowal  there  is  a 
of  rights  note  which  sounds  strangely  familiar  when  we 
get  down  to  later  times  and  are  listening  to 
the  speeches  of  Samuel  Adams  and  Patrick  Henry,  and 
reading  the  resolves  of  continental  congresses  and  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  It  is  a  surprising  docu- 
ment, calm,  measured,  but  bold  to  the  point  of  audacity. 
Gathered  together  from  different  clauses  of  the  enactment, 
condensed  and  modernized  by  the  author  of  the  "  History 
of  New  Plymouth  "  already  quoted,  but  given  with  accur- 
acy, this  is  the  courageous  avowal  of  principle  and  pur- 
pose :  "  We  the  associates  of  New  Plymouth,  coming 
hither  as  the  freeborn  subjects  of  the  State  of  England, 
and  endowed  with  all  and  singular  the  privileges  belonging 
to  such,  being  assembled  do  ordain  that  no  act,  imposition, 
law,  or  ordinance  be  made  or  imposed  upon  us  at  the 
present  or  to  come,  but  such  as  shall  be  made  and  imposed 
by  consent  of  the  body  of  associates  or  their  representa- 
tives legally  assembled,  which  is  according  to  the  liberties 
of  the  State  of  England." 

Here  were  insight  and  courage  of  the  first  order  — 
insight  to  perceive  their  rights  and  courage  to  state  them 
in  terms  not  to  be  misunderstood.    Give  time  for  the  idea, 


THE    PILGRIMS  369 

so  clearly  discerned  and  so  unequivocally  announced,  to  take 
root,  and  add  the  fertilization  of  harsh  treatment,  and  how 

surely  will  this  assertion  of  rights  grow  into 
Insight  and  ^ne  f urther  assertion  of  independence !  What 
courage  a  service  it  was  to  the  world  —  first  of  all 

to  draw  up  the  Mayflower  Compact  and  make 
it  the  basis  of  the  civil  polity  of  a  state,  and  then  to 
supplement  this  action,  so  soon  as  there  was  occasion 
for  it,  with  a  resolution  in  which  the  principles  of  the 
compact  were  not  only  reaffirmed  but  made  aggressive! 
What  are  a  few  eccentricities  in  legislation,  or  even  a  few 
grave  mistakes  in  determining  what  are  crimes,  and  ad- 
justing penalties,  in  comparison  with  the  calm  and  reso- 
lute announcement  of  political  conceptions  so  fundamental 
and  far-reaching! 


What  were  these  laws  —  or  rather  what  were  some  of  the 
more  characteristic  of  them?  It  will  help  us  to  a  better 
understanding  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  enable  us 
Some  of  t0  see  now  far  they  had  cut  loose  from  old 
the  specific  traditions,  and  how  far  they  were  still  under 
laws  of  bondage  to  the  temper  and  usages  of  their 

this  code  times,  if  we  tarry  at  this  point  long  enough  to 
answer  the  question  here  propounded.  It  will 
help  us  also  to  this  same  better  understanding  of  the  Pil- 
grims, if,  in  connection  with  our  examination  of  some  of  the 
laws  of  this  code,  we  cast  an  eye  forward  and  look  at  some 
of  their  subsequent  legislation. 

We  have  already  seen  how  much  in  advance  of  their  age 
the  Pilgrims  were  in  their  conception  of  the  fundamental 
principles  on  which  a  state  should  be  organized,  and  of  the 
measure  of  equal  rights  which  should  enter  into  the  policies 
and  laws  of  a  just  commonwealth.  Were  they  as  much  in 
advance  of  their  age  in  their  actual  legislation  as  they  were 
in  their  conception  of  fundamental  principles  and  equal 
rights?  Did  their  practise  keep  in  close  touch  with  their 
theories?  In  other  words,  were  their  ideas  of  government 
found  to  be  workable,  and  did  they  try  to  work  them? 

24 


370  THE    PILGRIMS 

In  estimating  the  civilization  reached  by  peoples  or 
periods  it  is  important  to  consider  them  from  many  points 
of  view.  But  if  it  is  necessary  to  confine  the 
Penal  laws  study  to  a  single  point,  then  the  treatment 
accorded  to  crimes  will  be  found  to  be  one  of 
the  most  illuminating.  What  do  they  count  crimes,  and 
how  do  they  deal  with  them?  Looking  at  the  Pilgrims  in 
this  light,  it  will  be  found  that  in  penal  legislation  they 
were  just  as  much  in  advance  of  the  prevailing  practises 
of  the  day  as  they  were  in  their  theories.  In  the  revised 
statutes,  of  1636,  there  were  only  six  crimes  which  were 
punishable  by  death.  These  were  treason,  murder,  witch- 
craft, arson,  rape,  and  crimes  against  nature.  Baylies 
seems  to  say  that  there  were  only  five  capital  offences  under 
the  laws  of  the  Pilgrims;  and  Goodwin  follows  him  in 
naming  this  number,  though  later  on  in  his  book  he  enumer- 
ates the  full  list  of  a  half-dozen.  But  even  were  he  not  to 
do  so,  the  crime  for  which  one  of  the  ten  persons  who  were 
convicted  and  executed  by  the  Plymouth  colonists  within 
the  seventy  years  of  their  independent  existence,  makes  it 
clear  that  the  number  was  six. 

Whether  five  or  six,  however,  the  humanity  which  limited 
the  list  of  the  capital  offenses  to  this  small  number  becomes 
amazing  as  well  as  gratifying  when  a  few. 
Comparisons  comparisons  are  made.  At  the  time  the  Pil- 
instituted  grims  left  Scrooby,  the  English  law-books 
enumerated  thirty-one  crimes  for  which  a  man 
might  be  deprived  of  his  life.  For  more  than  two  centuries 
the  brutality  steadily  increased.  In  1819,  incredible  as  it 
may  appear,  there  were  two  hundred  and  twenty-three 
offenses  which,  in  the  judgments  of  British  parliaments, 
might  be  suitably  punished  by  death.  In  their  first  codes, 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  each  had  twelve  capital 
offenses.  At  a  later  date,  in  both  colonies  two  were  added 
to  the  lists.  New  Haven  had  about  the  same  number. 
Virginia  named  seventeen.  J.  Hammond  Trumbull,  who 
took  pains  to  look  up  the  records  of  state  trials,  has 
said :  "  In  the  reform  of  penal  legislation  New  England 
was  at  least  a  century  in  advance  of  the  mother  country." 
True,  and  true  with  emphasis.     But  at  what  a  marked 


THE    PILGRIMS  371 

distance  was  the  older  colony  at  Plymouth  in  advance  of 
her  younger  and  more  vigorous  sister  colonies  at  Boston 
and  Hartford  and  New  Haven !  As  we  have  seen,  the  laws 
of  the  Pilgrims  provided  for  punishment  by  death  in  six 
cases.  The  administration  was  milder  than  the  code. 
Punishments  took  place  under  only  two  specifications. 
There  were  no  convictions  for  either  treason,  or  witchcraft, 
or  arson,  or  assaults  on  virtue.  William  Penn  was  in  ad- 
vance of  them  all;  for,  in  the  code  which  he  drew  up  and 
gave  to  his  colony,  murder  was  the  only  crime  for  which 
the  penalty  was  to  be  life  for  life.  But  Penn  was  a  pro- 
prietary governor,  and  could  impose  his  will  —  albeit  one 
of  the  best  instructed  and  most  benevolent  wills  ever  exer- 
cised by  the  leader  of  a  people,  upon  those  whom  he  had 
gathered  about  him,  while  the  Pilgrims  were  a  pure  democ- 
racy in  which  every  man  had  an  unquestioned  right  to 
utter  his  opinions.  It  is  in  this  light  that  their  humanity 
is  so  remarkable.    It  was  the  popular  voice. 


VI 

There  were  other  forms  of  punishment  for  infraction 
of  law  and  disorderly  conduct,  which,  though  falling  short 

of  taking  life,  were  yet  harsh.     Some  of  these 
Other  punishments,  while  quite  in  line  with  the  cus- 

forms  of        tom  0f  the  times,  were  quite  out  of  line  with 
punishment   the    kindly    disposition    and    advanced    views 

of  the  Pilgrims  in  matters  of  penal  legislation 
and  practise. 

For  especially  exasperating  offenders  they  had  the  stocks 
and  the  whipping-post.  In  extreme  cases  —  like  those  of 
Billington,  who  refused  to  obey  orders  and  became  abu- 
sive of  Standish;  and  Dotey  and  Lister,  who  shocked  the 
whole  community  by  fighting  a  duel  —  they  had  the  cruel 
device  of  tying  the  head  and  feet  of  culprits  together  and 
exposing  them  to  the  public  gaze.  Billington  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  cured  of  his  viciousness  by  this  painful  and 
humiliating  treatment;  but  Dotey  and  Lister  fought  no 
more  duels,  and  they  had  no  successors  in  this  barbarous 


372  THE    PILGRIMS 

method  of  vindicating  wounded  honor.  Sometimes,  as  in 
the  instance  of  the  widow  of  Billington,  the  penalty  inflicted 
was  the  threefold  one  of  a  fine,  the  stocks,  and  a  public 
whipping.  The  slander  of  a  good  man  by  a  woman  whose 
husband  had  been  hung  for  murder,  and  whose  standing 
among  her  associates  had  never  been  high,  seemed  to  the 
authorities  of  the  colony  an  offense  which  called  for  ex- 
emplary punishment.  Often  condemned  offenders  escaped 
the  stocks  or  the  whipping-post  by  paying  or  providing 
for  the  payment  of  a  fine.  Those  whose  head  and  feet  were 
tied  together  were  hardly  ever  forced  to  serve  out  their  full 
sentence. 

Other  laws  were  framed  which  grate  unpleasantly  on 
modern  feelings.  In  1668  an  act  was  passed  authorizing 
imprisonment  for  debt.  Efforts  had  evidently  been  made 
by  somebody  to  escape  meeting  just  demands  by  fraud 
or  cheating,  and  this  was  an  attempt  to  head  off  such 
schemes.  The  Plymouth  colonists  would  have  been  the 
last  men  in  the  world  to  confine  a  debtor  in  jail  when  he  had 
nothing  with  which  to  meet  his  obligations.  It  was  for 
this  reason  that,  at  a  much  earlier  date  than  the  foregoing 
enactment,  a  severe  penalty  was  affixed  to  the  crime  of  forg- 
ing deeds  to  lands.  This  was  a  heavy  fine ;  but  "  in  case 
of  inability  to  pay  the  fine  whipping  and  burning  an  F  in 
the  face  was  substituted."  The  "  Scarlet  Letter  "  was  like- 
wise authorized  when  occasion  seemed  to  call  for  it.  No 
instances  of  the  execution  of  these  penalties  by  the  Ply- 
mouth people  have  fallen  under  notice  in  books  read,  or 
records  examined.  But  the  leaders  always  stood  in  great 
horror  of  both  dishonesty  and  licentiousness. 

Time  and  experience,  aided  by  much  sober  reflection,  and 
by  increased  facilities  for  housing  and  holding  persons 
charged  with  crimes  and  misdemeanors,  moderated  the 
cruelty  of  these  laws  and  brought  in  a  more  rational  and 
humane  method  of  restraining  vice  and  chastising  wrong- 
doers. All  traces  of  barbarism  faded  from  their  statute- 
books. 

Concerning  laws  other  than  those  which  had  to  do  with 
crime  and  vice  which  were  enacted  by  the  Plymouth  colo- 
nists, all  it  is  necessary  to  say  is  that  they  followed  Eng- 


THE    PILGRIMS  373 

lish  precedents,   so   far   as   conditions   permitted.       Only 
these  laws  from  first  to  last  kept  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple  of  equal   rights   steadily   in   view,   and 
Civil  through  and  through  were  informed  with  the 

laws  spirit  of  the  great  compact.       Beginning  in 

a  church,  the  state  was  never  allowed  to  for- 
get God.  Its  policies  were  framed,  its  actions  were  shaped, 
its  life  was  guided  after  the  pattern  of  what  was  conceived 
to  be  a  high  type  of  practical  righteousness.  The  Pil- 
grims sought  to  make  their  laws  spell  exact  justice  and 
a  fair  chance  for  all,  and  they  largely  succeeded  in  what 
they  sought.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  all  history 
a  people  who  on  the  whole  can  better  afford  to  be  judged 
by  what  is  on  their  statute  books  than  the  Pilgrims. 


VII 

Here  it  is  necessary  to  retrace  our  steps  for  a  little  that 
we  may  deal  with  another  phase  of  the  political  life  of  the 
Plymouth  colony.  In  1638  an  important 
Change  to  change  was  made  in  the  form  of  government, 
representa-  jt  was  a  change  from  a  pure  to  a  representa- 
tive gov-  tiYe  democracy.  So  long  as  the  colony  was 
eminent  small  and  confined  to  a  limited  area,  it  was  pos- 
sible for  all  the  voters  to  assemble  in  one  place 
and  do  their  business.  With  expansion  this  ceased  to  be 
practicable.  It  is  true  there  were  only  three  incorpo- 
rated towns  —  Plymouth,  Duxbury,  and  Scituate  —  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  colony  when  the  new  plan  was 
adopted ;  but  other  towns  were  in  sight  and  fast  approach- 
ing. When  the  first  representative  assembly  met  in  1639, 
or  at  any  rate  before  the  session  closed,  four  new  towns  — 
Taunton,  Sandwich,  Yarmouth,  and  Barnstable —  had  per- 
fected their  organization  and  become  duly  incorporated. 
Marshfield  was  to  fall  in  line  and  enter  the  fellowship 
within  a  year.  Each  town  was  to  have  two  representa- 
tives, or  deputies  as  they  called  them,  except  Plymouth, 
which  was  allowed  to  have  four. 

This  miniature  congress  was  composed  of  two  branches. 


374  THE    PILGRIMS 

The  governor  and  his  seven  assistants  constituted  one 
branch,  while  the  town  deputies  made  up  the  other.     Both 

branches  sat  and  acted  together.  The  gov- 
The  legis-  ernor  presided.  This  form  of  legislative  as- 
lative  sembly  continued  to  be  the  practise  so  long 

assembly        as  tne  colony  had  a  separate  existence.     The 

assembly  was  called,  not  a  legislature,  but  a 
general  court  —  the  name  which  to  this  day  clings  to  the 
law-making  body  of  Massachusetts.  Deputies  to  the  gen- 
eral court  were  paid,  not  from  a  general  fund,  but  by  the 
towns  which  sent  them.  Under  this  arrangement  the 
towns  would  be  likely  to  see  to  it  that  the  sessions  of 
the  legislature  were  not  unduly  prolonged.  The  salary  was 
fixed  at  two  shillings  and  sixpence  a  day.  This  was  an- 
other salutary  check  on  long  sessions.  For  in  those  days 
the  best  men,  the  most  far-sighted  and  prominent  men, 
were  generally  chosen  to  office;  and  while  they  were  ready 
to  make  sacrifices  for  the  public  good,  they  would  not  be 
likely  to  neglect  their  own  affairs  for  the  pay  they  were 
getting  in  the  public  service. 


VIII 

Though  they  yielded  to  practical  necessity  and  changed 
the  form  of  government  from  a  pure  to  a  representative 
democracy,  the  Pilgrims  were  exceedingly  jeal- 
Jealous  ous  0f  their  civil  rights  and  were  careful  to 

of  rights  throw  every  possible  safeguard  about  them. 
Hence,  it  was  provided  that,  except  in  cases  of 
evident  emergency,  proposals  for  enactment  into  laws 
should  lie  over  for  one  year.  There  could  be  no  "  snap  " 
legislation,  and  no  "  omnibus  bills,"  adroitly  concealing  all 
sorts  of  schemes  and  jobs,  and  brought  in  at  the  last 
moment  and  hurried  through  under  suspension  of  the  rules, 
to  vex  and  humiliate  the  people.  Even  when  a  law  had 
been  passed  there  was  a  court  of  appeal  to  which  it  might 
be  taken,  and  not  only  negatived  but  actually  repealed. 

For  in  addition  to  this  legislative  assembly  there  was  a 
popular  assembly  of  the  freemen  of  the  colony  in  which 


THE    PILGRIMS  375 

final  authority  was  lodged.     This  was  called  the  "  Court 
of  Election."    The  governor,  the  assistants,  the  treasurer, 
and,  after  the  act  of  confederation,  the  colonial 
People  commissioners,  were  elected  by  this  assembly, 

retain  veto    jn  this  respect,  the  change  to  a  representative 
power  government    made   no    difference.      The    gov- 

ernor and  assistants  had  always  been  chosen 
by  popular  vote.  At  the  outset,  in  the  Bay  colony  the 
people  elected  the  assistants,  the  assistants  appointed  the 
governor,  and  the  governor  and  assistants  made  the  laws. 
After  no  long  time  this  plan  was  given  up,  and  the  people 
chose  the  executive  officers.  In  Plymouth  things  started 
in  this  way.  The  people  ruled.  This  assembly  of  freemen, 
moreover,  had  power  to  repeal  any  law  which  the  general 
court  had  passed.  Under  God,  and  against  all  claims  of 
superiority  by  anybody,  the  rights  of  the  people  were  held 
to  be  sacred  and  supreme. 

IX 

Frequent  references  have  been  made  in  this  narrative 
to  freemen,  and  the  rights  and  duties  of  freemen.     Who 

then  were  freemen,  and  how  did  men  become 
Freemen         freemen?     At  the  outset,  those  who  signed  the 

compact  in  the  May-flower  were  freemen.  Sub- 
sequently men  were  made  freemen  by  a  majority  vote  of 
those  who  were  already  freemen.  But,  beginning  in  1656, 
and  making  modifications  from  time  to  time  for  a  dozen 
years  or  more,  the  legislative  body  added  greatly  to  the 
strictness  of  the  conditions  on  which  one  might  join  the 
ranks  of  freemen.  A  man  had  to  have  local  indorsement, 
or  the  approval  of  the  particular  town  in  which  he  resided, 
before  he  could  be  advanced  to  this  high  privilege. 


At  the  end  of  the  period  just  indicated,  however,  and  as 
the  result  of  more  than  a  decade  of  discussion  and  experi- 
ence, it  was  settled  that,  in  order  to  exercise  the  rights 
and  enjoy  the  advantages  of  a  freeman,  one  "  must  be 


376  THE    PILGRIMS 

twenty-one  years  of  age,  of  sober  and  peaceable  conver- 
sation, orthodox  in  the  fundamentals  of  religion,  and 
possessed  of  twenty  pounds  of  ratable  estate 
Voting  a  m  the  Colony."  In  addition  to  this,  by  a 
sacred  trust  \aw  dating  back  to  1636,  every  freeman  had 
to  take  an  oath  to  be  loyal  to  the  king  and  to 
all  the  interests  of  their  little  state.  Citizenship  was  made 
to  stand  for  thoughtfulness,  thrift,  character.  One  of  the 
severe  punishments  inflicted  on  a  man  for  misbehavior  was 
disfranchisement.  Voting  was  held  to  be  both  a  duty  and 
a  dignity.  Like  filling  an  office,  it  was  invested  with  a 
large  measure  of  sacredness. 

By  these  stringent  regulations  some  men  were  excluded 
from  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  elective  franchise  who 
ought  not  to  have  been  excluded.  Religious  tests  are  not 
good;  but  moral  tests  are  good.  A  jealous  guardianship 
of  the  ballot-box  is  wise.  It  would  be  vastly  better  for  our 
republic  if  good  men  were  compelled  to  vote,  and  bad  men 
were  excluded  from  the  polls. 

This  is  not  all.  The  Pilgrims  not  only  safeguarded  the 
elective  franchise  by  making  the  voting  standard  high,  but 
they  emphasized  their  sense  of  the  importance 
Penalties  0f  crvic  interests  and  the  faithful  discharge  of 
for  failing  civic  duties,  by  making  the  failure  to  vote  on 
to  vote  the  part  of  those  to  whom  the  privilege  be- 

longed an  offense  punishable  by  fine.  A  fine  of 
three  shillings  was  imposed  on  freemen  for  failing  to  attend 
the  general  court  when  state  officials  were  to  be  chosen. 
Inasmuch  as  "  age,  disability  of  body,  and  other  incon- 
veniences "  might  hinder  the  attendance  of  some  who  were 
worthy  citizens  and  had  a  right  to  vote,  an  act  was  passed 
permitting  voting  by  proxy.  Admission  to  the  lists  of 
freemen  was  so  carefully  guarded  that  there  was  little 
danger  of  the  abuse  of  the  privilege.  It  would,  however, 
work  strange  confusion  and  be  the  source  of  boundless 
corruption  if  adopted  in  these  times.  This  idea,  that  all 
who  had  the  right  to  vote  should  discharge  the  duties  im- 
plied in  the  right,  was  carried  so  far,  that,  in  1646,  it  was 
enacted  that  towns  neglecting  to  send  deputies  to  the 
general  court  should  be  fined  two  pounds. 


THE    PILGRIMS  377 


XI 

It  is  not  apparent  from  the  record  whether  the  Old 
Colony  in  its  independent  colonial  days  was  afflicted  with 
any  considerable  number  of  office-seekers  — 
Fines  for  though  it  would  be  very  strange  if  there  were 
refusing  to  noi  some;  but  it  is  evident  that  it  was  not 
hold  office  always  easy  to  get  the  best  men  to  assume  the 
responsibilities  and  bear  the  burdens  of  public 
officials.  As  early  as  1632,  a  man  elected  to  the  office  of 
governor  and  declining  to  serve  was  made  liable  to  a  fine 
of  twenty  pounds.  The  penalty  for  refusing  to  serve  as 
assistant  was  ten  pounds.  One  elected  to  the  office  of  a 
selectman  of  the  town  must  discharge  the  duties  of  the 
position  or  pay  a  penalty.  We  have  just  seen  that  towns 
neglecting  to  send  deputies  to  the  general  court  were  sub- 
ject to  fines.  So  persons  chosen  by  any  town  to  the  office 
of  deputy,  and  neglecting,  without  adequate  reason,  to 
appear  and  discharge  the  duties  of  the  office  were  mulcted 
in  the  sum  of  twenty  shillings. 

All  this  reads  strangely  in  our  day  —  strangely  indeed, 
when  we  recall  how  many  men  there  are  who  are  willing  to 
pay  fabulous  amounts  to  secure  an  office;  and  how  many 
men  there  are,  too,  who  are  so  intent  on  voting  that  they 
are  ready  to  go  the  rounds  of  the  polling-places  at  every 
election!  But  it  is  more  than  likely  that,  if,  in  the  very 
region  which  was  hallowed  by  the  tread  of  the  Pilgrims, 
an  effort  were  made  to  get  all  the  good  men  to  vote  when 
there  are  elections,  and  all  the  best  men  to  consent  to  fill 
offices  of  public  trust  whenever  their  fellow  citizens  might 
deem  it  wise  to  designate  them  for  these  places,  the  result 
would  be  a  fresh  demonstration  of  the  difficulty  of  keeping 
the  public  spirit  in  any  community  up  to  a  high  level,  and 
inducing  the  most  efficient  and  worthy  members  of  the 
community  to  forego  their  own  ease  and  gain  for  the 
general  welfare. 

In  subsequent  chapters  there  will  be  occasion  to  notice 
other  statutes  which  were  passed  by  the  Pilgrims,  as  well 
as  an  opportunity  to  make  further  study  of  the  spirit  and 


378  THE    PILGRIMS 

purpose  of  these  people  as  reflected  in  their  legislation. 
Enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  general  trend  of  their 
thought  and  at  what  they  aimed  in  enacting  and  admin- 
istering their  laws.  They  sought  to  realize  order,  purity, 
and  justice.  They  wanted  their  little  state  to  stand  for 
the  utmost  freedom  to  do  right,  and  for  the  greatest  pos- 
sible hindrance  to  doing  wrong.  They  made  an  honest 
attempt  to  articulate  the  will  of  God  in  their  rules  and  regu- 
lations, and  to  order  all  their  affairs  in  a  way  to  meet  the 
divine  approbation. 

xn 

It  needs  to  be  steadily  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  the 
laws  of  the  Pilgrims  were  growths.  They  had  a  few  funda- 
mental principles  ;  but  they  had  no  ready-made 
Laws  were  SyStem  of  statutes.  Their  legislation  fol- 
growths  lowed  their  needs  and  was  designed  to  meet  the 
exigencies  of  the  hour.  Their  laws  are  the 
way-marks  of  their  progress,  and  show  how  the  little  state 
suited  itself  to  new  times  and  conditions.  The  advance  was 
sometimes  slow ;  and  sometimes  it  was  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
At  length,  as  we  have  seen,  they  had  their  code,  their  full 
equipment  of  officials  with  well-defined  powers  and  duties, 
and  policies  and  plans  to  match  the  situation.  Starting 
with  the  idea  of  loyalty  to  God,  and  building  on  the  founda- 
tion of  equal  rights,  they  watched  events  and  did  their  best 
to  make  a  model  state. 


XVIII 
WITCHES   AND    QUAKERS 


For  many  centuries  it  was  universally  believed,  that  the  continued  ex- 
istence of  witchcraft  formed  an  integral  part  of  the  teaching  of  the  Church, 
and  that  the  persecution  that  raged  through  Europe  was  supported  by  the 
whole  stress  of  her  infallibility.  .  .  .  On  this  ground  the  Reformers  had  no 
conflict  with  their  opponents.  The  credulity  which  Luther  manifested  on  all 
matters  connected  with  diabolical  intervention  was  amazing  even  for  his  age ; 
and,  when  speaking  of  witchcraft,  his  language  was  emphatic  and  unhesita- 
ting. '  I  would  have  no  compassion  on  these  witches,'  he  exclaimed,  '  I 
would  burn  them  all.'  —  W.  E.  H.  Lecky. 

The  founders  of  new  sects,  and  their  earliest  disciples,  whose  tone  of 
thought  is  in  a  habitual  state  of  passionate  elevation,  and  whose  aims  and 
objects  are  usually  idealized  by  the  glowing  atmosphere  of  an  ardent  imagina- 
tion, are  not  infrequently  characterized  by  a  zeal  highly  disproportioned  to 
the  wisdom  which  is  necessary  to  regulate  and  control  the  same. 

John  Stetson  Barby. 

Let  us  remember  — 

That  unto  all  men  Charity  is  due; 

Give  what  we  ask ;  and  pity,  while  we  blame, 

Lest  we  become  copartners  in  the  shame, 

Lest  we  condemn,  and  yet  ourselves  partake, 

And  persecute  the  dead  for  conscience'  sake. 

Henry  W.  Longfellow. 


XVIII 

WITCHES  AND  QUAKERS 

IN  the  course  of  the  years  the  Pilgrims  were  forced  into 
many  trying  situations.  They  had  to  encounter  a 
large  number  of  difficult  and  delicate  questions.  Their 
good  sense  and  their  humanity  were  often  put  to  the 
test;  and  the  strain  upon  their  wisdom  was  sometimes  in- 
tense. Amongst  the  most  perplexing  of  their  problems  was 
how  to  deal  with  witches  and  Quakers.  Both  of  these  prob- 
lems were  upon  them.  They  had  made  witchcraft  a  crime 
punishable  with  death.  Quakerism  had  suddenly  appeared 
to  annoy  and  derange.  What  should  be  done  with  Quakers  ? 
They  realized  at  the  time  how  much  the  peace  and  har- 
mony of  the  colony  depended  on  the  wisdom  with  which 
these  troublesome  issues  should  be  met.  They  could  not  have 
realized  how  seriously  a  few  mistakes  made  by  overzeal 
in  warding  off  the  harm  threatened  by  these  subtle  foes  of 
order  —  as  they  regarded  them  —  would  mar  their  fame 
in  years  to  come. 


At  the  date  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth 
Rock,  as  earlier  and  later,  belief  in  witchcraft  was  well-nigh 
universal.  In  Italy  and  the  German  states, 
Belief  in  jn  Switzerland,  Sweden,  Scotland,  and  Eng- 
witchcraft  land,  the  authorities  were  busy  burning  witches, 
universal  Catholics  and  Protestants,  men  eminent  for 
learning  and  of  exalted  position,  as  well  as  the 
ignorant  and  lowly,  were  alike  involved  in  the  fatal  delu- 
sion. Persons  suspected  of  this  "  craft,  invented  by  the 
devil  "  were  subjected  to  the  most  horrible  tortures  to  induce 
them  to  confess.    If  they  confessed  that  they  were  in  league 


382  THE    PILGRIMS 

with  the  powers  of  darkness,  they  sometimes  escaped,  though 
more  frequently  confession  was  considered  enough,  and  the 
poor  creatures  were  hurried  away  to  slaughter.  If  they  did 
not  confess,  this  was  taken  to  be  sufficient  evidence  of  guilt 
and  their  condemnation  and  execution  followed.  Trumbull 
quotes  this  statement  from  Mackey's  "  Popular  Delusions  " : 
"  During  the  whole  of  James'  reign,  amid  the  civil  wars  of 
his  successors,  the  sway  of  the  long  parliament,  and  the 
reign  of  Charles  II,  there  was  no  abatement  of  the  persecu- 
tion." Inside  of  the  hundred  years  before  the  Pilgrims  left 
Scrooby,  "  Continental  Europe  sacrificed  one  hundred 
thousand  lives  on  this  ground."  A  thousand  a  year,  for  a 
whole  century,  laid  on  the  altar  of  this  strange  and  horrible 
delusion ! 

At  the  very  time  when  the  Pilgrims  were  framing  their 
laws,  England  and  Scotland  were  burning  and  hanging 
witches.  The  sickening  business  was  kept  up  in  Great 
Britain  until  more  than  a  hundred  years  after  the  Ply- 
mouth settlement  was  begun,  and  there  was  an  execution 
in  Germany  as  late  as  the  French  Revolution.  In  a  charge 
made  to  a  jury  when  two  women  were  on  trial  for  witch- 
craft, Sir  Matthew  Hale  said  that  "  he  did  not  in  the  least 
doubt  there  were  witches."  A  century  later  Lord  Mans- 
field, though  liberal,  if  not  in  his  politics,  yet  in  his  religious 
views,  held  to  the  same  opinion.  Palfrey  well  says:  "It 
was  not  to  be  expected  of  the  Colonists  of  New  England  that 
they  should  be  first  to  see  through  a  delusion  which  had 
befooled  the  whole  civilized  world  and  the  greatest  and  most 
knowing  persons  in  it."  The  marvel  is  that  the  colonists 
were  so  little  affected  by  the  raging  distemper. 

As  has  been  stated,  witchcraft  was  made  one  of  the  six 
capital  crimes  named  in  the  Plymouth  laws  of  1636.  In 
this  respect,  it  is  worth  while  to  remember,  the  colony  was 
not  unlike  the  colonies  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  Connecticut, 
Rhode  Island,  Manhattan,  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  Penn- 
sylvania. But  it  was  conspicuously  unlike  some  —  not  all 
—  but  some  of  the  others  in  two  particulars  —  a  remark- 
able scarcity  of  witches  within  its  bounds,  and  a  decided 
indisposition  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  to  convict 
persons  charged  with  this  crime. 


THE    PILGRIMS  383 


II 

From  first  to  last  there  were  only  two  cases  brought  to 
trial.    One  of  these  occurred  in  1661.    A  woman  in  Scituate, 

by  the  name  of  Sylvester,  affirmed  that  another 
Only  two  woman,  by  the  name  of  Holmes,  had  become  a 
cases  witch.     She  had  seen  her  talking  with  the  devil 

in  the  form  of  a  wild  animal.  The  accuser  was 
prosecuted  for  slander,  and  found  guilty,  and  in  way  of 
amends  for  the  wrong  done  she  had  not  only  to  pay  costs, 
but  to  confess  that  she  had  lied.  The  second  case  occurred 
six  years  later  in  the  same  town.  A  Mrs.  Ingham  was 
charged  with  bewitching  Mehitabel  Woodworth.  Trial 
followed.  The  woman  was  acquitted.  In  the  single  trial  for 
witchcraft  which  took  place  in  Pennsylvania,  and  which 
was  nearly  twenty  years  after  these  two  trials  at  Plymouth, 
the  jury  brought  in  this  verdict:  "  The  prisoner  is  guilty 
of  the  common  fame  of  being  a  witch,  but  not  guilty  as  she 
stands  indicted."  It  was  in  this  spirit  that  the  Pilgrims 
had  given  their  decisions. 

Thus  the  Pilgrims,  having  fallen  in  with  the  delusion 
of  their  age  in  expressing  their  belief  in  witchcraft  and 

making  it  a  capital  offense  in  their  laws,  es- 
No  witch  caped  the  reproach  of  after  years  by  refusing 
executed         to  credit  the  "  vulgar  tales  "   and  "  diseased 

imaginations  "  of  a  couple  of  indiscreet  and  un- 
scrupulous gossips.  No  judicial  murders  of  this  sort  are 
to  be  laid  to  their  charge.  The  two  trials  just  in  mind 
were  after  his  day,  but  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  noted  by 
Goodwin,  that  Bradford  nowhere  refers  to  witchcraft. 
It  had  but  small  place  in  the  thought  of  the  Plymouth 
colonists. 


Ill 

Amongst  the  most  intelligent,  industrious,  orderly,  self- 
controlled,  philanthropic,  and  in  every  way  exemplary 
people  in  our  modern  time  are  the  Friends.     It  seems  in- 


384  THE    PILGRIMS 

credible  that  there  should  ever  have  been  anybody  identified 
with  them  in  their  faith  and  habits  who  was  not  kindly  dis- 
posed, peaceable,  discreet  in  conduct,  and,  while 
Trouble  firm  [n  opinion,  conciliatory  in  manner.  George 

with  the         Fox,  the  son  of  a  weaver,  and  the  apprentice 
Quakers  0f  a  shoemaker,  had  a  message  to  the  world. 

When  this  message  is  interpreted  to  us  through 
the  career  and  services  of  Penn,  or  the  sweet  and  conse- 
crated life  of  Woolman,  memorable  for  his  "  Journal,"  or 
the  brain  and  heart  and  spotless  character  of  Whittier, 
we  bow  and  gratefully  acknowledge  its  genuineness  and 
power. 

But  in  the  ranks  of  the  earlier  followers  of  the  founder 
of  the  Society  of  Friends  there  were  not  a  few  who  sug- 
gest present-day  adherents  of  the  organiza- 
Wild  en-  ^ion  on}y  Dv  contrast.  The  great  poet  just 
thusiasts  named,  who  is  held  in  honor  by  all  and  tenderly 
loved  both  for  his  poetry  and  his  manhood,  has 
said  that  "  the  extravagance  of  some  of  the  early  Quakers 
has  been  grossly  exaggerated."  No  doubt.  But  even  he, 
though  charging  it  to  "  persecution  and  the  denial  of  the 
rights  of  conscience  and  worship,"  freely  admits  "  that  many 
of  them  manifested  a  good  deal  of  wild  enthusiasm."  This 
"  wild  enthusiasm,"  however,  is  but  a  tame  expression  of 
the  facts.  They  were  fanatical,  turbulent,  often  indecent ; 
and  the  inward  voice  which  spoke  to  them  became  in  too 
many  instances,  as  they  gave  it  articulation,  a  boisterous 
demonstration  of  harsh  and  bitter  words. 


IV 

The  Pilgrims  were  naturally  alarmed  at  the  approach  of 
these  intruders.    They  had  sought  peace  and  they  wanted  to 

live  in  peace.  At  great  cost  of  time  and  labor 
^ky  they  had  cleared  their  lands,  built  their  homes, 

alarmed  set  Up  their  institutions,  and  formulated  their 

policies ;  and  they  did  not  see  why  they  should 
be  disturbed.  If  these  apostles  of  a  new  faith  had  come  to 
seek  shelter  from  oppression,  to  cast  in  their  lot  with  them 


THE    PILGRIMS  385 

and  be  loyal  citizens  of  their  little  state,  or  even  to  talk 
over  in  a  calm  and  rational  way  the  great  questions  which 
were  agitating  their  minds,  they  would  have  had  a  hearty 
welcome,  no  doubt,  and  an  equal  chance  with  those  who  had 
come  before  to  work  out  their  destiny.  But  to  come  as 
prophets  of  the  Lord  without  any  distinct  credentials  in 
their  message,  or  in  their  conduct,  to  show  that  they  had 
been  sent  of  the  Lord,  was  another  thing.  The  colonists 
dreaded  confusion  and  overturning.  They  had  had  experi- 
ence of  Lyford  and  his  mischievous  intrigues;  and  of 
Gorton  with  what  another  had  termed  his  "  riotous  and 
turbulent  conduct ; "  and  they  had  no  relish  for  further 
troubles  of  this  sort.  Precisely  this  is  the  reason  alleged  in 
defense  of  their  legislation  against  the  Quakers.  From  all 
they  could  learn  of  them,  their  "  doctrines  and  practises 
manifestly  tended  to  the  subversion  of  the  fundamentals  of 
the  Christian  religion,  church  order  and  the  civil  peace  of 
the  government."  Apprehensions  like  these  gave  to  the 
outlook  a  serious  aspect,  and  whether  well  founded  or  not, 
prudent  men  entertaining  them  could  hardly  have  been  ex- 
pected to  stand  by  and  do  nothing.  This  does  not  justify 
a  harsh  and  blind  intolerance.  It  does  not  defend  the  wis- 
dom of  some  of  the  measures  taken  by  the  colony  against 
the  vexation  and  harm  threatened  by  the  presence  of  these 
zealots.  But  the  attitude  assumed  by  them  goes  far  towards 
throwing  the  complainants  out  of  court. 


The  first  law  enacted  against  the  Quakers  in  Plymouth 
was  in  1657.     This  law,  like  the  more  severe  one  which 
followed  it,  was  not  a  direct  but  an  indirect 
First  Law      blow  at  the  offenders.    It  was  an  act  forbidding 
against  the  bringing  of  Quakers  into  the  colony  by 

Quakers  anybody  on  pain  of  a  fine  of  twenty  shillings  a 

week  for  every  week  the  prohibited  person  re- 
mained within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  colony. 

It  deserves  to  be  remembered,  not  in  justification  of  the 
Pilgrims,  but  in  mitigation  of  a  harsh  judgment  of  them, 

25 


386  THE    PILGRIMS 

that  they  were  "  put  up  "  to  this  action  by  the  Bay  people. 
It  was  "  the  godly  care  and  zeal  of  the  gentlemen  of  Massa- 
chusetts," not  only  for  a  revival  of  religious 
Urged  to  interests  and  the  reinforcement  of  a  declin- 
action  by  mg  ministry  in  the  Plymouth  colony,  but  for 
Bay  the  barring  out  and  extermination  of  "  such 

colony  pests  "  as  were  now  coming  in  upon  them  in 

the  guise  of  these  "  ranters,"  which  led  to  these 
enactments. 

These  are  the  circumstances.  A  year  before  the  passage 
of  the  law  just  mentioned,  the  general  court  of  the  Bay 
colony  sent  a  communication  to  the  commissioners  of  the 
four  colonies  which  had  become  confederated,  in  which  they 
were  informed  of  the  arrival  at  Boston  of  "  several  persons 
professing  themselves  Quakers,"  whom  they  regarded  as 
"  fit  instruments  to  propagate  the  kingdom  of  Satan." 
This  communication  was  sent  to  the  commissioners  to  induce 
them  in  their  official  capacity  to  recommend  to  the  general 
courts  of  each  of  the  colonies  the  adoption  of  "  some 
general  rules,"  to  prevent  the  coming  in  amongst  them  of 
these  "  notorious  heretics."  The  commissioners  fell  in  with 
the  suggestion  and  definitely  proposed  "  to  the  several 
General  Courts  that  all  Quakers,  ranters,  and  other  notori- 
ous heretics  be  prohibited  coming  into  the  United  Colo- 
nies." It  was  further  urged  that  if  these  proscribed  parties 
should  "  hereafter  come  or  rise  among  them,"  they  should 
be  "  forthwith  secured  and  removed  out  of  all  jurisdic- 
tions." This  session  of  the  commissioners  was  held  at 
Plymouth,  and  the  action  was  no  doubt  taken  with  the 
special  intent  of  influencing  the  general  court  of  the 
Plymouth  colony. 

This  first  law,  which  was  passed  under  the  inspiration 
and  urging  just  indicated,  did  not  prove  so  effective  as  was 
thought  desirable.  A  subsequent  law  was 
A  second  therefore  enacted  with  added  prohibitions  and 
law  passed  increased  penalties.  It  was  made  a  crime,  not 
only  to  bring  Quakers  into  the  colony,  but 
knowingly  to  harbor  them  after  they  had  come.  The  fine 
for  this  offense  was  five  pounds  or  a  whipping.  In  1658  a 
law  was  passed  disfranchising  Quakers.    Moreover,  as  they 


THE    PILGRIMS  387 

were  wandering  up  and  down  the  land  without  any  lawful 
calling,  a  house  of  correction  was  built,  in  which,  under 
charge  of  vagabondage,  they  might  be  locked  up  and  set  to 
work.  Executive  officers  were  authorized  "  to  seize  all 
books  and  writings  in  which  the  doctrines  and  creeds  of 
the  Quakers  were  contained."  There  was  no  abatement 
of  the  disorder.  These  drastic  remedies  did  not  cure  the 
disease. 


VI 

Instead  of  halting  in  their  course  and  giving  the  subject 
the  benefit    of    a   sober    second   thought,   the    authorities 

pushed  straight  on  and  added  measure  to 
Further  measure,  each  succeeding  one  having  in  it  a 

enactments    little  sharper  sting  of  reproach  and  carrying  a 

little  heavier  burden  of  penalty  than  the  pre- 
ceding one,  until  in  1659  the  court  decreed  that  in  certain 
contingencies  of  persistent  disobedience  to  laws  which  had 
been  passed  the  offenders  should  be  put  to  death.  Thus? 
the  Pilgrims  fell  into  line  with  the  sentiment  and  practise 
in  the  mother  country,  in  the  Bay  colony,  in  New  York 
and  Virginia,  and  undertook  to  extinguish  fanaticism  by 
adding  fuel  to  the  flames.  Governor  Arnold,  of  Rhode 
Island,  said  of  these  mad  enthusiasts  that  "  they  delight 
to  be  persecuted  by  the  civil  power."  Severity  is  lost  on 
such  people. 

VII 

The  intrusion  of  the  Quakers  upon  the  Pilgrims  began 
in  1657.  In  the  course  of  that  year  Nicholas  Upsall,  Hum- 
phrey Norton  and  John  Rouse  visited  Ply- 
First  in-  mouth,  began  their  agitation,  and  brought  the 
stance  of  question  of  what  to  do  with  them  to  a  square 
punish-  issue.  Upsall  arrived  first,  and  in  no  long  time 
ment  was  taken  back  to  Rhode  Island  whence  he  came. 

Norton  next  appeared  on  the  scene.  He  was 
accorded  the  same  treatment  and  promptly  bundled  over 


388  THE    PILGRIMS 

the  border  into  the  more  hospitable  realm  of  Roger 
Williams. 

Norton,  however,  unlike  Upsall,  seems  either  to  have 
renewed  his  zeal,  or  nursed  his  wrath,  or  both ;  for  the  next 
year  found  him  back  among  the  Pilgrims 
Norton  and  anc[  ready  to  do  battle  for  his  cause.  Rouse 
Bouse  was  with  him.     The  two  were  a  valiant  pair, 

and  not  without  ability  of  a  certain  sort  as 
well  as  the  courage  of  their  convictions.  They  were 
arrested,  put  on  trial,  and  condemned  to  be  publicly 
whipped. 

The  trial  had  some  amusing  as  well  as  some  aggravating 
turns.  The  prisoners  at  the  bar  were  shrewd  and  auda- 
cious ;  and  the  contempt  they  felt  for  the  court  was  not 
left  to  be  laboriously  inferred.  One  of  the  little  franknesses 
in  which  Norton  frequently  indulged  while  undergoing 
examination  was  to  say  to  the  governor :  "  Thou  lyest." 
He  openly  charged  this  high  official  with  being  a  "  mali- 
cious man,"  and  having  "  a  clamorous  tongue,"  and  he 
more  than  intimated  that  he  used  this  unruly  member  like 
"  a  scolding  woman."  Hard  pressed,  the  defendants  fell 
back  on  their  rights  as  Englishmen  and  denied  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  court.  In  this  claim,  the  two  disturbers  of  the 
peace  overreached  themselves  and  the  authorities  were  quick 
to  take  advantage  of  the  situation.  If  Englishmen,  they 
might  be  required  to  take  the  oath  of  loyalty  to  England. 
This  duty  was  pressed  upon  them.  They  refused  either  to 
take  the  oath  or  make  affirmation.  On  the  ground  of  this 
refusal,  so  it  appears,  the  men  were  convicted  and  forced  to 
submit  to  the  public  whipping  previously  mentioned.  They 
left  the  colony  and  gave  it  no  more  trouble  by  their  per- 
sonal presence. 

The  two  having  departed  from  Plymouth  under  a  com- 
pulsion which  they  felt  bound  to  respect,  it  occurred  to 
Norton  that  there  was  a  way  still  open  to  him 
Norton's  by  which  he  might  effectually  torment  his  perse- 
revenge  cutors.  He  would  entertain  them  with  an  ex- 
hilarating dose  of  absent  treatment.  He  acted 
on  this  suggestion  and  wrote  back  two  letters,  one  to  Gover- 
nor Prence  and  the  other  to  Alden.     For  sharpness,  these 


THE    PILGRIMS  389 

letters  would  have  done  credit  to  Junius,  and  for  impatient 
and  spiteful  vituperation  they  would  have  given  points  to 
Caliban.    This  was  the  end  of  vexation  from  Norton. 

VIII 

Undeterred  by  the  treatment  measured  out  to  the  apos- 
tles of  this  new  faith,  other  disciples  of  Fox  followed  those 

already  named  in  a  missionary  invasion  of  the 
Other  in-  old  Colony.  Two  men,  by  the  name  of  Braind 
stances  an(j  Copeland,  felt  called  to  deliver  a  message  to 

the  Pilgrims  in  1658.  Their  stay  in  the  com- 
munity was  short ;  for  they  insulted  the  magistrates,  and 
were  straightway  ordered  out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  gov- 
ernment. They  obeyed;  but  inside  of  a  week  they  were 
back  again  —  only  to  be  whipped  and  sent  off  once  more. 
Two  others,  Leddra  and  Pier  son,  tried  to  convince  the  col- 
onists of  the  error  of  their  ways.  They  were  locked  up  and 
kept  in  jail  till  they  were  ready  to  cry  quits.  Wenlock 
Christison,  a  zealous  advocate  of  the  inner  light,  evidently 
had  a  good  deal  of  the  spirit  and  pluck  of  Norton.  He 
came ;  but  was  persuaded  to  retire.  He  came  a  second  time ; 
and  it  was  not  long  before  he  was  dealing  out  his  judgments 
right  and  left.  He  was  taken  in  hand  and  punished  with  the 
painful  and  humiliating  device  of  "  head  and  heels." 

The  next  year  there  was  a  band  of  six  persons  who  came 
to    Plymouth.      These    were    headed    by    Lawrence    and 

Cassandra  Southwick.  They  had  been  driven 
The  South-  awav  from  the  Bay  colony,  and  had  sought, 
wicks  n0^  a  refuge,  but  a  sphere  in  which  to  bear 

testimony  within  the  domain  of  the  Pilgrims. 
They  were  given  four  weeks  in  which  to  pick  up  and  be  off. 
If  they  did  not  comply  with  the  order,  they  were  reminded 
that  by  a  recent  act  of  the  law-making  power  the  penalty 
of  death  might  be  inflicted  upon  them.  It  was  no  longer 
the  jail,  the  whipping-post,  and  the  "  head  and  heels  "  which 
these  wild  enthusiasts  had  to  fear,  but  death.  To  this  sad 
pass  had  the  business  come. 

One  of  the  names  about  which  sad  memories  gather  in 
connection  with  the  fanaticism  and  folly  of  those  old  days  is 


390  THE    PILGRIMS 

Mary  Dyer.  She  found  her  way  to  Plymouth  the  same 
year  in  which  the  Southwicks  and  their  four  associates 

made  their  appearance  in  the  place.  She  was 
Mary  restored    to    her    husband    in    Rhode    Island. 

Dyer  Thomas  Greenleaf,  who  had  brought  her,  was 

forced  to  pay  the  costs.  Later,  both  Mrs. 
Dyer  and  Leddra  —  two  of  those  whose  names  appear  in 
the  narrative  —  were  "  hanged  from  the  great  elm  on  Boston 
Common." 

IX 

It  is  an  intense  satisfaction  to  add  that,  while  the  Ply- 
mouth people  were  unduly  alarmed,  and  unwise  and  unjust 

in  their  treatment  of  a  few  propagandists  who 
No  Quaker  h^  zeaj  no^  according  to  knowledge,  they  never 
put  to  reached  the  fatal  point  of  judicially  dismissing 

death  a  Quaker  into  the  next  world.    Smarting  under 

the  contempt  which  these  evangelists  of  the 
inner  light  threw  upon  their  officials  and  laws,  naturally 
sharing  the  fear  of  the  time  as  to  the  effect  which  such 
teaching  and  conduct  would  have  upon  their  religious  and 
civil  institutions,  and  exasperated  into  a  legislative  threat 
of  death  to  these  men  and  women  if  nothing  short  of  this 
would  arrest  them  in  their  career  of  disturbance,  they  yet 
stopped  short  of  the  extremity  of  hanging.  They  whipped 
and  tortured  and  ostracized  them ;  but  they  did  not  take 
life.  No  blood  of  a  martyr  for  opinion's  sake,  nor  for  un- 
wise devotion  to  religious  conviction,  stains  Plymouth  Rock. 


The  madness  and  folly  could  not  last  always.  They 
were  suddenly  arrested.    For  once,  the  interposition  of  regal 

authority  was  in  the  interest  of  humanity. 
Stopped  Friends  on  the  other  side  of  the  water  appealed 

by  the  to   Charles   II   on  behalf   of  their   persecuted 

kin&  brethren  in  America,  and  he,  in  the  exercise  of 

his  kingly  prerogatives,  called  a  halt  on  these 
cruel  and  foolish  proceedings.     In   a  communication   ad- 


THE    PILGRIMS  391 

dressed  to  each  and  all  of  the  governors  of  New  England  the 
"  Merry  Monarch  "  stole  time  enough  from  his  pleasures  to 
say  that  there  must  be  no  more  persecutions  and  no  more 
hangings  of  "  those  people  called  Quakers ;  "  but  that  all 
cases  in  which  they  were  involved  must  be  transferred  to 
England  for  trial  and  final  disposition.  This  opened  the 
prison  doors  and  let  the  oppressed  go  free.  It  was  a  good 
stroke  by  a  bad  sovereign. 

The  end  of  the  controversy  came  none  too  soon  for  the 
welfare  and  peace  of  the  Plymouth  colony.  The  Old  Col- 
ony never  suffered  so  much  from  this  Quaker 
End  none  agitation  as  the  Bay  colony;  but  it  was 
too  soon  greatly  disturbed.  The  question  got  into  pol- 
itics and  made  party  divisions.  Men  who  be- 
lieved that  the  authorities  were  going  too  far  were  shoved 
into  the  background,  and  the  more  headstrong  were  pushed 
to  the  front.  The  struggle  was  fast  assuming  an  aspect  of 
personal  bitterness  and  factional  rivalry.  Had  it  continued 
there  would  have  been  lasting  alienation.  As  it  was,  Isaac 
Robinson,  the  son  of  the  ever-to-be-remembered  John  Rob- 
inson, and  the  Howlands,  and  others  of  the  prominent  men 
who  lifted  their  hands  against  these  harsh  measures,  were 
discredited,  and  had  to  wait  until  the  storm  had  passed 
before  they  could  be  reinstated  in  the  public  favor.  The 
situation  was  one  from  which  it  was  well  to  escape  at  almost 
any  price. 


XIX 

CONFEDERATION  OF  THE   COLONIES 


In  the  origin  and  development,  the  strengthening  and  the  triumph,  of 
those  agencies  which  transferred  from  the  Old  World  to  the  New  the  trial  of 
fresh  ideas  and  the  experiment  with  free  institutions,  the  Colonists  of  New 
England  had  the  leading  part.  The  influence  and  the  institutions  which 
have  gone  forth  from  them  have  had  a  prevailing  sway  in  the  northern  half 
of  this  Continent.  —  George  Edward  Ellis. 

The  Colonies,  three  thousand  miles  distant  from  England,  leagued  to- 
gether for  mutual  defense ;  and  their  Amphictyonic  Council  was  as  valuable 
and  as  important  to  them,  as  the  greater  Confederacies  of  the  Old  World, 
which  the  most  loyal  historians  have  applauded  and  approved. 

John  Stetson  Barry. 

It  was  not  only  domestic,  but  foreign  enemies  that  induced  this  Con- 
federation, which  may  well  be  called  the  embryo  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  —  Sewell  Harding. 


XIX 

CONFEDERATION    OF    THE    COLONIES 

AT  this  point  it  is  necessary  to  return  to  an  earlier  stage 
in  the  history  of  the  Pilgrims  than  that  which  has 
just  now  been  under  review.    In  1643,  an  important 
milestone  was  reached,  and  a  new  and  significant  chapter 
was  opened  in  the  progress  of  the  Plymouth  colony. 


Massachusetts  Bay,  the  colony  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  the 
colonies  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  entered  into  a 
confederation.  The  name  given  to  the  organ- 
Confedera-  ization  was  The  United  Colonies  of  New  Eng- 
tion  of  the  ian(j.  At  that  time  the  Plymouth  colony 
colonies  numbered   about   three   thousand   inhabitants. 

Massachusetts  had  five  times  as  many.  Con- 
necticut had  about  the  same  number  as  Plymouth ;  and  New 
Haven  five  hundred  less.  There  were  eight  towns  in  the  Old 
Colony. 

The  leaders  in  the  movement  had  three  main  objects  in 
view  in  bringing  about  this  union.  One  was  that  there 
might  be  a  prompt  and  satisfying  way  of  adjusting  dis- 
putes over  boundaries,  and  amicably  settling  such  other 
differences  as  might  arise  between  the  parties  concerned. 
Another  was  the  promotion  of  their  mutual  interests  by  en- 
couraging each  other  in  "  preserving  and  propagating  the 
truths  and  liberties  of  the  gospel."  It  was  a  "  cosociation 
for  mutual  help  and  strength ; "  and  they  hoped  by  means 
of  it  to  increase  their  chances  of  "  advancing  the  Kingdom 


396  THE    PILGRIMS 

of  Jesus  Christ."  How  the  underlying  concern  of  these 
men  —  Pilgrims  and  Puritans  alike  —  for  the  deep  things 
of  God  and  the  soul  crops  out  at  every  turn!  Still  an- 
other, the  most  obvious  and  commending,  was  the  common 
defense. 

Five  years  before  the  date  just  named  a  serious  effort 
had  been  made  to  establish  a  league  of  this  sort;  but  the 
time  had  not  come  when  all  could  see  eye  to  eye,  and  realize 
the  importance  of  standing  together  in  an  alliance  which, 
in  emergencies,  would  make  each  a  vital  part  of  the  whole, 
and  the  whole  much  more  weighty  and  efficient. 

At  the  date  first  mentioned,  however,  1643,  and  after 
much  agitation  of  the  question,  public  opinion  was  ripe  for 
the  advance  step.  Concert  of  plan  and  action  had  become 
a  necessity.  Indian  matters  in  particular  were  assuming 
grave  and  threatening  aspects  and  awakening  most  serious 
apprehensions.  The  disturbed  condition  of  things  in  Eng- 
land greatly  increased  the  peril  from  this  source.  If  revo- 
lution was  to  be  inaugurated,  if  the  home  government  was 
to  be  overturned,  if  the  authorities  were  to  be  obliged  to  de- 
vote all  their  attention  to  securing  or  holding  their  places, 
there  would  be  small  chance  of  receiving  help  from  over 
the  seas  in  case  savage  plots  were  hatched  and  massacres 
were  attempted.  With  jealous  nations  alert,  and  rival 
colonies  of  other  speech  and  faith  ready  to  act  on  hints 
from  intriguing  politicians,  wily  chiefs  of  the  forest  tribes 
would  be  promptly  apprised  of  the  situation,  and  know  well 
when  and  where  to  strike  their  deadly  blows.  So  it  was 
feared;   and  this  fear  became  a  spur  to  union. 

Still,  while  this  was  a  ground  of  alarm  and  a  reason  for 
coming  together,  there  was  to  be  no  wanton  aggression  on 
the  Indians.  The  ninth  article  of  the  terms  of  union  was 
carefully  drawn,  and  made  as  clear  and  strong  as  possible, 
with  the  specific  end  in  view  of  preventing  any  one  of  the 
colonies  from  acting  on  its  own  responsibility,  either  in 
resisting  threatened  attacks,  or  making  assaults,  or  in 
avenging  wrongs  done  by  the  Indians.  They  were  to  re- 
ceive kindness  and  open-handed  justice. 


THE    PILGRIMS  397 


II 

The  basis  of  the  union  was  the  political  equality  of  the 
colonies,  and  the  right  of  each  to  be  represented  by  two 

delegates  in  the  conferences.  These  delegates, 
The  basis  or  representatives  from  the  colonies,  were  called 
of  union         commissioners.      Under  the  provisions  of  the 

union  there  could  be  only  eight  of  them  at 
most;  but  they  constituted  a  legislative  assembly.  They 
were  a  federal  congress.  One  of  its  own  number  was  to  be 
chosen  to  preside  over  the  deliberations  of  the  body ;  though 
the  president's  vote  on  any  measure  up  for  adoption  counted 
no  more  than  the  vote  of  any  other  member.  On  questions 
of  peace  and  war  it  required,  save  in  "  sudden  exegencies," 
six  votes  to  pass  a  motion  and  make  it  binding.  If  propo- 
sitions of  weight  were  presented  which  could  not  command 
the  six  votes  needed  for  their  adoption,  they  were  referred 
to  the  general  court  of  the  several  colonies.  The  appor- 
tionment of  forces  and  the  meeting  of  expenses  in  case  of 
war  were  to  be  according  to  the  numbers  and  financial 
strength  of  the  several  colonies.  Massachusetts,  for  in- 
stance, was  to  furnish  men  in  the  ratio  of  one  hundred  to 
forty-five  for  each  of  the  other  jurisdictions.  This  pro- 
portion, however,  which  was  so  fixed  in  one  of  the  articles 
of  the  compact  under  which  the  confederation  had  been 
formed,  was  altered  at  the  first  session  of  the  commissioners, 
and  Massachusetts  was  set  down  for  one  hundred  and  fifty, 
Plymouth  and  Connecticut  for  thirty  each,  while  New 
Haven  was  required  to  raise  only  twenty-five.  This  shows 
what  forward  strides  the  Bay  colony  was  making  in  those 
early  years.  The  meetings  of  the  commissioners  were  to  be 
held  once  a  year  —  though  when  occasion  called  there  might 
be  emergency  meetings  —  and  in  each  of  the  colonies  in 
turn.  The  best  men  were  sent  to  this  little  congress.  John 
Winthrop  was  the  first  president  in  a  line  of  presidents 
which  would  have  done  honor  to  any  legislative  body  in 
the  world.  Bradford  was  four  times  elected  a  commissioner ; 
and  he  was  twice  chosen  to  preside.  The  men,  however, 
who  were  most  frequently  sent  to  represent  Plymouth,  while 


398  THE    PILGRIMS 

the  colonies  were  acting  under  the  first  articles  of  union, 
were  Thomas  Prince,  John  Brown,  Josiah  Winslow,  and 
Thomas  Southworth. 


ni 

In  1662,  through  the  influence  of  John  Winthrop, 
the  younger,  a  charter  of  remarkably  liberal  provisions 

was  obtained  from  Charles  II,  for  Connecti- 
Wew  arti-  cu^#  This  charter  was  found  to  cover  New 
cles  of  Haven.     Three  years  later,  after  not  a  little 

union  bitter  controversy  and  much  against  the  will 

of  many  of  the  leading  citizens,  the  colony  of 
Davenport  and  Eaton  became  merged  in  that  of  Haynes 
and  Hooker.  This  reduced  the  colonies  which  were  in  the 
confederation  from  four  to  three,  and  called  for  a  recon- 
struction of  the  articles  of  union.  It  took  many  con- 
ferences and  a  number  of  years  to  bring  this  about ;  but  in 
1672  the  revised  articles  were  ratified  and  the  confederacy 
set  out  anew. 

The  important  changes  were  that  henceforth  it  would  re- 
quire five  out  of  six,  instead  of  six  out  of  eight,  of  the  com- 
missioners to  make  an  action  binding ;  the  meetings  were  to 
be  not  annual  but  triennial  —  though  provision  was  made 
for  calling  and  holding  extraordinary  meetings  when  occa- 
sion demanded ;  wars  were  not  to  be  undertaken  except  by 
authorization  of  the  general  courts  of  the  several  colonies ; 
men  were  to  be  raised  for  the  common  defense,  and  expenses 
met  for  military  operations,  on  the  basis  of  a  new  apportion- 
ment by  which  Massachusetts  was  to  contribute  in  the  ratio 
of  one  hundred  to  sixty  for  Connecticut  and  thirty  for  Ply- 
mouth. There  were  other  alterations;  but  these  were  the 
main  ones.  It  was  under  this  second  constitution  that  the 
colonies  lived  and  carried  on  their  joint  operations,  until 
Plymouth  was  finally  annexed  to  Massachusetts  and  became 
extinct  as  an  independent  jurisdiction. 


THE    PILGRIMS  399 


IV 

What  did  the  confederacy  do  for  the  Plymouth  colony? 
There  are  several  answers  to  this  question.     In  a  general 

way  it  may  be  said  that  it  did  for  the  Plymouth 
Value  of  colony  just  what  was  expected  of  it  when  the 
union  to  confederacy  was  formed.  It  gave  new  heart 
Plymouth      an(j  new  hope  to  the  people.     It  removed  the 

sense  of  isolation  which  had  sometimes  been  so 
weakening  and  oppressive.  It  imparted  the  confidence  which 
it  derived  from  an  increase  in  the  numbers  of  those  who 
have  interests  in  common  and  are  moved  by  a  common  spirit 
and  purpose.  It  increased  the  resources,  both  of  strength 
and  wisdom,  available  in  case  of  contest.  To  a  single  strand 
three  strands  were  added ;  and  it  made  a  cord  which,  to  say 
the  least,  could  not  be  so  easily  broken.  It  was  a  tie  that 
bound  in  a  wider  fellowship.  It  was  a  rift  in  the  clouds  of  a 
threatening  sky. 


But,  in  addition  to  a  general  service  of  this  kind,  it  ren- 
dered specific  services  of  great  worth  along  the  lines  had 

in  view  when  the  confederacy  was  formed.  To 
Settled  cite  a  single  instance,  it  may  be  said  that  title 

claims  to  to  tne  ownership  and  jurisdiction  over  a  tract 
disputed  0f  country  lying  on  the  border  between  the 
territory         Massachusetts    and    Plymouth    colonies    was 

satisfactorily  adjusted  and  the  boundaries 
definitely  fixed.  For  a  number  of  years,  beginning  with 
1640,  Seekonk,  a  portion  of  which  is  now  known  as  Reho- 
both,  was  a  bone  of  contention  between  the  two  colonies. 
The  Bay  colony  claimed  it,  apparently  because  she  wanted 
it ;  and  the  Old  Colony  asserted  her  right  to  it  in  vi<ue  of 
some  sort  of  patent.  So  long  as  the  colonies  remained 
separate,  there  was  no  way  of  dealing  with  the  question  in 
dispute  except  for  each  to  state  its  position  and  urge  its 
claims,  and  there  leave  the  matter.  The  confederacy  fur- 
nished a  court  of  appeal,  and  cases  could  there  be  pushed 
to  a  finish.     Precisely  that  is  what  was  done  in  this  in- 


400  THE    PILGRIMS 

stance.  The  facts  were  laid  before  the  commissioners,  and 
the  claims  of  each  side  were  presented ;  then  those  members 
of  the  commission  who  were  not  parties  to  the  controversy, 
and  to  whom  the  case  was  referred  for  decision,  made  answer 
in  favor  of  Plymouth.  Thus  a  long  and  irritating  conten- 
tion was  brought  to  an  amicable  conclusion.  There  were 
other  differences  of  like  nature  in  which  the  other  colonies 
were  concerned  and  which  were  brought  to  happy  adjust- 
ments by  the  board  of  commissioners ;  but  this  instance  is 
mentioned  because  it  had  to  do  with  Plymouth,  and  answers 
our  questions  by  showing  how  the  peace  and  welfare  of 
Plymouth  were  promoted  by  the  confederacy. 

For  another  instance  and  in  another  sphere  it  may  be 
said  that  the  Pilgrims  were  encouraged  to  take  a  freshened 
interest  in  education,  and  to  put  more  zeal  into 
Encouraged  the  support  of  ministers  and  churches,  in  con- 
to  sustain  sequence  of  influences  brought  to  bear  on  them 
schools  and   through  the  confederacy. 

churches  When  the  confederacy  was  set  up  the  Ply- 

mouth colony  had  been  in  existence  for  more 
than  twenty  years.  While  the  fires  of  devotion  to  high 
ideals  still  burned  upon  the  altar,  it  is  not  strange  that  there 
was  a  little  less  heat  and  glow  in  the  flame  than  in  the 
earlier  times.  The  struggle  to  gain  a  permanent  footing 
in  the  land  had  been  a  hard  and  wearisome  one.  New  set- 
tlers were  coming  in  upon  them ;  but  some  of  them  were  on 
the  ground  simply  for  gain,  and  so  far  as  the  higher  in- 
terests of  the  colony  were  concerned  they  were  rather  a 
hindrance  than  a  help.  Elder  Brewster,  always  an  appre- 
ciable and  unfailing  moral  and  spiritual  force  in  the  com- 
munity, was  near  the  end  of  his  beneficent  career.  Without 
any  marked  degeneracy  of  the  people,  though  the  outlook 
was  somewhat  alarming  to  Bradford;  and  without  any 
decided  lowering  of  the  tone  of  devotion  to  the  ends  of  in- 
struction and  religion,  it  was  only  natural  for  enthusiastic 
outsiders  to  feel  that  the  time  had  come  when  a  little  wise 
counsel  and  encouragement  would  do  the  colony  good,  and 
for  the  colony  to  feel  that  it  needed  just  this  kind  of  whole- 
some stimulation.  In  this  spirit  counsel  was  given  and 
received.     There  was  no  patronizing  intrusion,  and  there 


THE    PILGRIMS  401 

was  no  irritation.  Everything  was  in  good  temper;  and 
the  moral  life  of  the  colony  was  helped  by  this  association 
with  other  members  of  the  confederacy  and  the  suggestions 
which  reached  the  colony  through  the  confederacy. 

It  was  through  the  urgent  recommendation  of  the  com- 
missioners that  Nathaniel  Morton  was  encouraged  to  write 
his  "  New  England's  Memorial."  Though  this  is  far  from 
being  a  full  and  perfect  account  of  things  in  the  colony  for 
the  first  forty  years  and  more,  it  is  yet  invaluable. 

The  Plymouth  people  had  their  vision  enlarged  and  their 
interest  in  the  training  of  youth  increased  by  the  appeals 
which  reached  them  through  the  confederacy  in  behalf  of 
the  little  college  at  Cambridge.  The  help  sought  was  small, 
but  it  was  given;  and  the  effect  was,  not  only  to  aid  a 
young  and  struggling  institution,  but  to  stimulate  inter- 
est in  their  own  schools.  The  determination  and  energy 
with  which  Massachusetts  resisted  assaults  on  religion,  or 
the  views  and  statements  and  customs  which  her  rulers  iden- 
tified with  religion,  were  not  always  wise,  nor  was  the 
counsel  which  she  pressed  on  her  sister  colonies  always  the 
best;  but  Plymouth  felt  the  impulse  imparted  by  Massa- 
chusetts, and  the  purpose  of  the  Pilgrims  to  foster  sound 
learning  was  intensified,  and  their  zeal  in  maintaining  the 
truth,  in  supporting  churches,  and  in  strengthening  the 
hands  of  the  ministers,  was  very  much  quickened.  In  some 
instances  harm  was  done  by  this  outside  urgency ;  but  the 
good  was  more  than  the  harm,  and  the  good  was  abiding. 
Plymouth  gave ;  but  she  also  received ;  and  the  people  of  the 
Old  Colony  were  wider-visioned  and  more  earnest  in  their 
loyalty  to  truth  and  duty  because  of  the  ideas  and  influences 
which  reached  them  through  the  channels  of  the  confederacy. 

Important,  however,  as  the  confederacy  was  to  Ply- 
mouth in  other  particulars,  it  was  indispensable  in  the  hard 
and  bitter  conflict  with  Philip.  The  war  had 
Indispensa-  %0  <jo  primarily  with  the  Plymouth  colony, 
ble  aid  in  Some  have  thought  that  the  Plymouth  colony 
war  with  was  wnolly  to  blame  for  bringing  it  on;  and 
Philip  that  a  little  more  tact  and  patience  on  the  part 

of  the  leaders  would  have  prevented  it  alto- 
gether.   Be  this  as  it  may,  the  other  colonies  were  very  soon 

26 


402  THE    PILGRIMS 

involved  in  the  terrific  wrestle,  and  the  fight  became  a  fight 
for  the  life  of  them  all.  Had  it  not  been  for  this  union  of 
the  Pilgrim  colony  with  the  other  colonies,  it  is  difficult  to 
see  how  the  oldest  settlement  of  the  league  could  have  main- 
tained its  existence.  In  all  human  probability  it  would  have 
been  swept  from  the  earth.  The  account  of  this  conflict  will 
appear  more  in  detail  in  a  later  chapter.  Here  and  now 
it  is  enough  to  say,  as  has  just  been  hinted,  that  so  far  as 
can  be  gathered  from  the  known  facts  of  the  case,  if  the 
confederacy  had  not  been  formed  in  1643  and  renewed  at 
a  subsequent  date,  the  obituary  of  the  Plymouth  colony 
would  have  been  written  in  1675. 


VI 

In  addition  to  the  advantages  just  enumerated  —  some 
of  them  general,  and  some  of  them  specific  —  which  the 
confederacy  conferred  upon  the  Plymouth 
Incidental  colonists,  there  were  some  benefits  derived 
benefits.  from  the  union  which  were  not  nominated  in 

the  bond.  They  were  incidental  benefits ;  but 
they  were  real.  For  the  confederacy  afforded  opportunity 
or  occasion  to  the  Plymouth  people  to  exhibit  qualities 
which,  though  known  to  exist,  could  not  otherwise  have  been 
brought  out  and  shown  so  distinctly. 

For  one  thing  the  union  served  a  purpose  in  making  clear 
the  tenacity  with  which  the  Pilgrims  held  to  their  local 
rights.  They  guarded  their  democracy  with 
Great  a  jealous  eye.     At  the  outset  they  were  watch- 

stress  laid  fu]  jest  they  yield  too  much  in  the  organiza- 
on  local  |-jon  Qf  j-^g  league.     Then,  as  measures  were 

rights  introduced  from  time  to  time  and  discussed  in 

their  tiny  parliament  of  eight  commissioners, 
they  were  ever  alert  in  the  interest  of  their  cherished  local 
control.  In  the  union  and  out  of  the  union  they  had  a  pas- 
sion for  both  equal  rights  and  local  rights. 

To  a  large  extent  this  is  true,  indeed,  of  all  the  New 
England  colonies.  It  is  true  of  all  the  groups  of  early 
settlers,  east  and  west,  north  and  south,  who  laid  the  faun- 


THE    PILGRIMS  403 

dations  of  our  institutions ;  and  it  remains  true  to  this  day. 
The  late  Senator  Hoar  once  said  to  me  that  one  of  the 
reasons  why  the  general  government  has  been  so  reluctant 
to  exercise  its  power  in  behalf  of  the  disfranchised  negroes 
is  the  traditional  unwillingness  there  is  in  this  country  to 
override,  or  seem  to  override,  local  self-government.  When 
it  is  remembered  that  blacks  as  well  as  whites  belong  to 
the  locality,  and,  therefore,  by  the  very  terms  of  the  state- 
ment ought  to  be  included  in  the  list  of  those  who  have  right 
to  a  share  in  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  locality, 
the  argument  would  seem  to  have  little  weight.  It  is  pre- 
eminently local  self-government  which  is  disregarded  and 
trampled  in  the  dust  by  this  outrage  on  justice. 

But  the  sentiment  was  pronounced  in  the  Plymouth  col- 
onists ;  and  the  questions  which  came  up  in  connection  with 
the  confederacy,  and  the  management  of  affairs  under  the 
terms  of  the  union,  helped,  not  only  to  develop  this  senti- 
ment, but  to  make  it  more  and  more  evident.  It  will  be  re- 
called that  candidates  for  full  citizenship  in  the  colony 
had  to  have  strong  local  backing  before  they  could  be  made 
freemen.  Acting  in  the  larger  sphere  of  the  confederacy 
the  Pilgrims  still  clung  to  this  idea.  When  the  articles  of 
union  had  been  drawn  up  and  practically  agreed  upon  at 
Boston  in  May,  1643,  Edward  Winslow  and  William  Col- 
lier, the  delegates  from  Plymouth,  refused  to  sign  them 
"  for  want  of  sufficient  commission  from  their  General 
Court."  When  the  old  confederacy  was  abandoned  and  a 
new  one  was  formed,  there  was  a  marked  drift  towards  less 
power  in  the  larger  organization,  and  more  in  the  local 
jurisdiction.  It  was  reserved  for  the  Massachusetts  colony, 
at  one  stage  in  the  career  of  the  confederacy,  to  fall  back 
on  the  extreme  doctrine  of  state  rights ;  but  the  Plymouth 
men,  while  faithful  to  the  obligations  which  they  had  as- 
sumed in  entering  the  union  of  the  colonies,  were  never 
wanting  in  distrust  of  centralized  power. 

Even  in  a  life-and-death  struggle  like  that  between  the 
colonists  and  Philip,  the  general  court  of  Plymouth  passed 
an  order  permitting  soldiers  going  on  an  expedition  to 
choose  their  commander,  and  also  advising  commanders 
to  consult  their  soldiers  as  to  what  should  be  done.    Only 


404  THE    PILGRIMS 

men  like  the  Pilgrims  and  their  successors  could  be  led  to 
victory  under  this  sort  of  discipline.  In  cases  of  impor- 
tance the  commissioners  to  the  confederate  conferences  in- 
sisted on  knowing  the  feelings  and  opinions  of  the  general 
court  before  they  would  consent  to  act.  With  all  the  re- 
sources at  her  command  Plymouth  resisted  absorption  into 
Massachusetts.  The  pride  of  the  people  was  wounded,  of 
course ;  but  the  chief  thing  was  that  they  wanted  to  manage 
their  own  affairs  and  safeguard  their  own  interests.  The 
last  act  of  the  general  court  of  the  Old  Colony  was,  in  view 
of  the  disaster  which  had  befallen  them  in  losing  their  sepa- 
rate political  existence,  to  appoint  a  day  of  "  solemn  fasting 
and  humiliation."  In  the  state  of  feeling  which  then  existed 
amongst  them  we  may  be  sure  that  the  day  was  duly  observed. 
New  Haven  and  Plymouth  —  both  settlements  strenuous  for 
self-government  —  had  to  pass  through  the  humiliating  ex- 
perience of  being  absorbed  in  another  jurisdiction. 

Another  one  of  these  incidental  advantages  afforded  by 
the  confederacy  to  the  Plymouth  men  was  the  chance  it 
gave  them  to  show  the  surprising  ability 
Ability  of  which  they  possessed,  and  their  capacity  to 
the  Ply-  meet  grave  questions  as  they  arose.  Any  one 
mouth  wh0  reads  the  story  will  not  fail  to  be  impressed 

men  with  the  way  in  which  they  kept  up  their  end  in 

the  discussions  and  negotiations  which  were 
carried  on  between  them  and  their  associates  in  the  manage- 
ment of  their  common  affairs. 

There  is  a  prevailing  notion  that  the  successors  in  office 
of  the  earlier  leaders  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  the  children  who 
were  born  to  them,  as  well  as  those  who  from  time  to  time 
were  added  to  their  number  from  the  outside,  were  greatly 
inferior  to  the  Mayflower  company  in  intellectual  capacity 
and  moral  fiber.  It  is  quite  true  that  the  first  comers  were  a 
remarkable  group.  No  later  names  in  the  Pilgrim  line  will 
ever  shine  with  a  luster  to  equal  that  which  attaches  to  the 
names  of  Carver  and  Bradford,  Brewster  and  Standish, 
Winslow,  Alden,  Hopkins,  and  Howland ;  but  the  men  who 
came  after  them  in  leadership,  or  who  sprang  from  their 
loins  in  the  second  and  third  generation,  were  by  no  means 
wanting  in  brains  and  pluck. 


THE    PILGRIMS  405 

Thomas  Prince,  who  joined  the  colony  in  1621,  having 
come  over  in  the  Fortune,  but  who  in  the  earlier  part  of  his 
career  was  largely  overshadowed  by  the  more  conspicuous 
figures  of  the  Mayflower;  Josiah  Winslow,  the  son  of  Ed- 
ward; Thomas  Hinckley,  who  came  with  his  father  and 
mother  from  England  to  Scituate,  and  ten  years  later  re- 
moved to  Barnstable,  and  who  was  the  dominating  influence 
at  Plymouth  during  the  closing  years  of  the  independent 
political  life  of  the  jurisdiction;  and  Benjamin  Church,  a 
Plymouth  boy,  born  in  1639,  the  military  leader  at  a  time 
when  military  leadership  of  a  high  order  was  at  a  premium, 
were  all  of  them  able  men.  Prince  was  governor  for  eigh- 
teen years.  Sixteen  of  these  years  followed  the  death  of 
Bradford  and  were  without  a  break.  He  had  his  faults  and 
he  made  mistakes  ;  but  there  was  light  in  his  brain  and  grip 
in  his  hand.  He  was  a  warm  advocate  of  schools  and 
churches,  and  he  did  what  he  could  to  foster  these  institu- 
tions. Winslow  followed  Prince,  and  was  the  chief  execu- 
tive for  the  seven  years  which  included  the  trying  and 
triumphant  war  against  Philip.  Hinckley  held  the  reins 
of  power  for  twelve  years  —  counting  the  time  when  Andros 
was  doing  all  the  ruling  and  local  governors  were  of  no 
consequence  —  and  in  his  difficult  position  he  showed  both 
discretion  and  courage.  It  is  enough  to  say  of  Church  that 
he  grasped  the  situation  and  measured  up,  so  far  as  he  was 
permitted  to  do  so,  to  the  full  demands  of  the  hour  when 
the  awful  storm  of  concerted  and  savage  wrath  suddenly 
blackened  the  sky  and  broke  on  the  devoted  heads  of  the 
colonists.  One  has  only  to  observe  the  attitude  and  actions 
of  the  Plymouth  men  during  the  years  in  which  their  colony 
was  in  the  confederation  to  see  that  in  good  temper,  in  in- 
telligent comprehension  of  conditions,  in  ability  to  state 
a  case,  in  pluck  in  standing  up  for  their  just  claims,  in 
diplomacy,  in  willingness  to  bear  their  fair  share  of  the 
common  burdens,  and  in  skill  and  bravery  in  war,  they 
were  the  peers  of  the  representatives  of  the  other  colonies. 
One  who  reads  the  correspondence  between  the  representa- 
tives of  the  Massachusetts  government  and  those  of  Ply- 
mouth on  the  question  whether  the  commissioners  by  their 
action  could  bind  all  the  colonies  to  support  an  offensive 


406  THE    PILGRIMS 

war,  will  see  that  in  comprehension  of  the  question  at  issue, 
in  clearness  of  statement,  and  in  cogency  of  reasoning,  the 
Plymouth  advocates  had  the  better  of  it.  It  was  much  to 
the  credit  of  Bradstreet  and  Dennison  of  the  Bay  colony, 
who  took  the  rope-of-sand  view  of  the  articles  of  confedera- 
tion, that  they  yielded  gracefully  at  last;  but  it  is  quite 
evident  that  they  yielded  because  they  had  to  do  it.  They 
had  not  only  the  weaker  side ;  but  they  were  the  weaker  con- 
testants. The  Plymouth  statesmen  stood  as  stiffly  for  local 
rights  as  the  Massachusetts  statesmen;  but  for  the  mo- 
ment, in  the  crisis  which  was  then  upon  them,  the  former 
saw  more  clearly  than  the  latter  that  the  way  to  preserve 
local  rights  was,  for  the  time  being,  to  surrender  some 
portion  of  them  to  the  wider  authority  of  the  whole  com- 
munity. These  after-years  have  seen  that  same  question 
debated  in  senate  chambers  by  the  intellectual  giants  of  the 
nation,  and  on  many  a  bloody  battle-field  where  graves  and 
monuments  mark  the  sacrifices  of  the  strife;  but  the  final 
settlement  had  been  in  line  with  the  contention  of  those 
humble  but  far-seeing  representatives  of  the  type  of  democ- 
racy which  now  dominates  the  nation. 

At  the  end  of  three-quarters  of  a  century  there  was  less 
moral  enthusiasm  among  the  people,  less  unity  of  spirit 
and  purpose,  more  ambition,  more  worldliness,  and  more 
vice  and  crime ;  but  there  was  no  moment  in  the  independent 
life  of  the  Plymouth  colony  when  the  leadership  of  affairs 
was  not  in  the  hands  of  men  of  ability  and  character. 

VII 

There  is  another  particular  in  which  the  Plymouth 
colony  was  benefited  by  this  confederation ;  but  it  is  a  .par- 
ticular in  which  all  the  colonies  were  helped. 
Training  Hence,  while  the  mention  of  it  has  a  place  here, 
secured  for  ft  ought  not  to  stand  out  by  itself  as  if  appli- 
future  cable  only  to  the  Plymouth  people.    This  union 

needs  0f  hearts  and  hands  prefigured  and  prepared 

the  way  for  another  union  of  hearts  and  hands 
which  was  to  mean  much  to  the  dwellers  in  this  land,  and  to 
the  dwellers  in  all  lands  in  the  time  to  come.    When  the  hour 


THE    PILGRIMS  407 

had  struck  for  a  united  front  against,  not  an  Indian  chief, 
but  a  British  sovereign,  the  New  Englanders  were  ready ; 
for  their  ancestors  had  taught  them  how  to  stand  together 
and  work  together  in  a  cause  which  meant  life  or  death. 

This  union  was  organic.  It  was  a  federal  government. 
The  states  were  small:  but  it  was  a  confederacy  of  states. 
It  was  not  a  mere  nocking  together  in  a  loose  alliance  of  in- 
dependent sovereignties;  but  an  organization  clothed  with 
central  and  superior  authority.  As  we  have  seen,  Plymouth 
was  slow  to  yield  so  much  power  as  seemed  to  be  necessary 
to  the  confederacy  —  though  it  stood  up  for  it  bravely  and 
successfully  when  the  test  came;  and  Massachusetts  drew 
back  in  an  emergency  —  though  it  bowed  gracefully  to  the 
inevitable  when  the  pressure  became  too  much  to  withstand. 
Breaches  of  the  terms  of  the  union  were  not  tolerated. 
When  one  member  of  the  compact  refused  to  comply,  the 
others  asserted  the  right  of  the  body  to  have  its  way.  The 
union  of  the  four  colonies  was  prophetic  of  the  union  of 
the  thirteen  colonies,  and  it  was  educational.  Both  unions 
looked  forward  to  a  mighty  union  of  independent  states. 
However  crude  the  arrangements,  here  was  the  clear  fore- 
shadowing of  e  pluribus  unum,  and  of  a  government  where 
sovereign  authority  must  be  recognized,  and  whose  laws  no 
single  state  might  nullify. 


XX 

THE    WAR    WITH    PHILIP 


Philip,  of  Mount  Hope,  a  high-spirited  savage,  of  great  enterprise,  brav- 
ery and  military  genius,  jealous  of  the  constant  growth  of  the  English  set- 
tlement, hating  their  religion,  despising  those  of  his  own  countrymen  who 
embraced  the  worship  and  cultivated  the  manners  of  the  white  men,  and 
feeling  strong  in  that  acquaintance  with  the  arms  of  civilized  warfare  which 
the  Indians  had  so  extensively  acquired,  united  the  savage  tribes  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Rhode  Island  in  a  last  desperate  effort  to  exterminate  the 
English.  —  Leonard  Bacon. 

Scarcely  any  Indians  were  left  within  the  New  England  Colonies  except 
the  friendly  Mohegans.  But  this  was  not  accomplished  until  terrible  havoc 
had  been  wrought  among  the  English,  chiefly  in  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth. 
Of  ninety  towns,  twelve  had  been  utterly  destroyed,  while  more  than  forty 
others  had  been  the  scene  of  fire  and  massacre.  More  than  a  thousand  men 
had  been  killed,  and  a  great  many  women  and  children.  There  was  a  great 
war  debt  which  it  took  several  years  to  pay.  —  John  Fiske. 


XX 

THE   WAR  WITH   PHILIP 

FROM  the  time  when  Standish  attacked  the  Neponsits 
at  Wessagusset,  and  struck  down  the  leaders  and 
brought  the  tribe  to  terms,  in  1624,  not  a  drop  of 
Indian  blood  was  shed  in  war  by  the  Pilgrims  until  the  out- 
break of  Philip  in  1675.  The  troops  of  the  colony  had  been 
called  out  in  the  Pequot  War;  but  before  they  reached 
the  scene  of  action  the  war  was  at  an  end.  For  a  half -cen- 
tury there  had  been  peace  and  the  victories  of  peace.  The 
foundations  of  the  new  state  had  been  securely  laid,  general 
policies  had  been  settled,  laws  suited  to  the  situation  had 
been  enacted,  churches  and  schools  had  been  organized  and 
set  forward,  serious  obstacles  had  been  met  and  overcome, 
and  many  of  their  hopes  had  been  realized. 

At  length,  however,  the  madness  of  those  who  were  to  be 
destroyed  prevailed ;  the  fury  long  suppressed  burst  forth ; 
and  for  more  than  a  twelvemonth  the  skies  were  lurid  with 
the  flames  of  burning  buildings  ;  the  fields,  on  which  so  much 
hard  labor  had  been  expended,  were  desolated;  herds  and 
flocks  were  stolen  or  killed;  industry  and  enterprise  were 
paralyzed;  remote  and  lone  settlers  were  driven  from  their 
homes ;  towns  and  villages  were  kept  in  constant  alarm,  and 
the  hearts  of  wives  and  mothers  were  wrung  with  anguish 
over  the  sudden  and  cruel  taking-off  of  those  whose  lives 
were  so  dear  to  them  and  on  whose  strong  arms  they  leaned 
for  support.  New  England  never  knew  another  desolation 
like  it.  Hidden  away  in  swamps  and  forest  fastnesses, 
prowling  about  with  stealthy  tread  under  cover  of  darkness, 
were  wily  foes  who  might  surprise  their  victims  at  any 
moment  and  smite  them  to  their  death.    Fire  and  slaughter 


412  THE    PILGRIMS 

ruled  the  hour  and  overclouded  all  life  with  gloom.  No  one 
can  have  an  adequate  idea  of  the  perils  to  which  the  Pilgrim 
colonists  were  exposed,  of  the  hardships  which  they  had  to 
endure,  of  the  sacrifices  which  they  had  to  make,  and  of  the 
interruption  which  the  outbreak  brought  to  their  progress, 
who  leaves  unread  the  story  of  this  sharp  death-grapple 
between  the  forces  of  barbarism  and  civilization. 


What  were  the  causes  of  the  war?     Strictly  speaking 
there  were  two  causes  —  one  general,  and  the  other  specific 

and  personal. 
Causes  of  The  general  cause  was  the  conviction  which 

the  war  took  possession  of  the  leaders  on  the  Indian 

side  that,  unless  the  natives  arose  in  their  might 
and  swept  the  English  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  their  own 
race  was  doomed.     The  English  were  increasing;    the  In- 
dians  were   diminishing.      The   English   were 
^ke  occupying  more   and   more  of   the  territory 

general  which  had  once  been  their  own;    the  Indians 

cause  were  being  crowded  into  a  corner.     It  mattered 

not  that  the  Indians,  for  considerations  satis- 
factory to  themselves,  had  bartered  away  their  hunting- 
grounds  and  set  their  seals  to  instruments  that  made  the 
newcomers  the  rightful  owners  of  a  large  part  of  the  do- 
main of  which  they  had  once  been  sole  lords  —  the  facts  were 
that  they  were  facing  extinction.  It  was  the  new  against 
the  old.  It  was  the  higher  against  the  lower.  It  was  in- 
structed minds,  industry,  foresight,  increasing  resources, 
humanity  and  progress  against  the  stupid  contentment 
which  accepts  things  as  they  are  and  prefers  annihilation 
to  change.  By  yielding  and  coming  under  the  influence 
of  civilization  there  might  be  a  future  for  the  aborigi- 
nes; but  if  they  insisted  on  clinging  to  their  savagery  it 
must  be  extermination  for  one  or  the  other  of  these  races. 
The  land  was  not  wide  enough  for  them  both.  So  the 
leaders  reasoned.  So  the  more  obstinate  and  warlike  of  the 
tribes  were  made  to  feel. 


THE    PILGRIMS  413 

The  specific  and  personal  cause  was  Philip.    It  grew  out 
of  the  overweening  ambition,  the  intriguing  and  mischief- 
plotting  temper,  and  the  subtle  hatred  of  this 
The  speci-      Indian  chief.      He  wanted  to  avenge  fancied 
fie  and  wrongs,  to  stand  at  the  head  of  the  New  Eng- 

personal         jan(j  tribes,  and  be  their  leader  in  recovering 
cause  ground  lost  to  his  race.     The  savage  instinct 

came  to  the  front,  and  he  was  consumed  with 
the  passion  to  have  his  people  dip  their  hands  in  blood. 

n 

Who  was  Philip?    He  was  a  younger  son  of  Massasoit. 
On  the  death  of  his  older  brother,  Alexander,  in  1662,  he 

came  into  succession  to  the  chieftaincy  of  the 
Philip  Pokanokets. 

He  was  not  a  man  to  be  trusted.  Finding 
warrant  in  a  statement  made  by  Hubbard,  it  is  frequently 
asserted  in  chapters  devoted  to  the  war  by  not  a  few  of  our 

later  writers,  that  the  hostile  attitude  assumed 
Not  a  man  \yj  Philip  grew  out  of  harsh  treatment  accorded 
to  be  to  his  brother  Alexander.    Elliott,  in  his  "  New 

trusted  England  History  "  rolls  this  as  a  sweet  morsel 

under  his  tongue.  But  Palfrey  shows  conclu- 
sively that  this  inference  is  not  warranted.  Neither  before 
his  fatal  illness,  nor  during  the  progress  of  his  illness,  was 
Alexander  treated  harshly.  On  the  contrary,  the  utmost 
kindness  was  extended  to  him.  By  nature  Philip  was  un- 
trustworthy. He  was  the  degenerate  descendant  of  a  sire 
who  had  moral  integrity  enough  to  make  pledges  of  friend- 
ship and  keep  them  unto  the  end ;  and  in  character  he  sug- 
gests his  father  only  by  contrast.  He  was  base  and 
treacherous.  His  impulses  were  low  and  cunning.  The 
sense  of  honor  which  marked  many  a  chief  of  the  native 
tribes  was  wanting  in  him.  Under  the  guise  of  friendship 
he  could  prosecute  intrigues.  When  he  was  suspected,  and 
his  plans  were  uncovered,  and  he  was  openly  charged  with 
evil  intent,  he  could  make  lies  his  refuge;  or  if  he  could 
not  escape  through  the  arts  of  duplicity,  he  was  capable  of 
confessing  all  in  the  most  abject  fashion,  and  falling  back 
on  a  new  agreement  and  promise  to  do  better  in  the  future. 


414  THE    PILGRIMS 

One  of  the  confessions  of  this  sort,  which  was  made  by 
him  more  than  four  years  before  the  open  rupture  of  ami- 
cable relations  with  the  whites,  was  to  the  effect,  that, 
through  his  "  indiscretions  "  and  "  the  naughtiness  of  his 
heart "  he  had  "  violated  and  broken  the  covenant "  pre- 
viously made  with  the  English,  and  "  taken  up  arms  with 
an  evil  intent  against  them,  and  that  groundlessly ; "  and 
that,  having  become  "  deeply  sensible  "  of  his  "  unfaithful- 
ness and  folly,"  he  wished  to  renew  his  treaty  relations  with 
these  friends  of  his  father  and  of  himself,  whom  "  at  all 
times  he  had  found  kind."  In  token  of  the  genuineness  of 
his  contrition  he  proposed  to  turn  over  his  English  arms 
to  the  Plymouth  authorities.  Had  his  confession  been  sin- 
cere it  would  have  been  to  his  credit.  It  was  not  sincere ;  it 
was  a  trick.  It  was  a  move  to  gain  time.  He  was  acting  a 
part;  and  both  his  acknowledgment  of  his  faults  and  his 
offer  to  surrender  his  guns  reveal  the  depths  of  abjectness 
into  which  he  could  descend.  On  occasion  he  could  be  inso- 
lent. When  called  to  account  for  the  non-fulfilment  of  his 
promise  to  surrender  his  muskets  he  snapped  his  fingers  at 
the  complaining  officials  and  practically  defied  them  to  hold 
him  to  his  agreement.  But  whether  abject  or  insolent,  he 
was  false  to  the  core  and  always  open  to  suspicion.  While 
he  hated  the  Plymouth  people  with  all  the  energy  of  his  evil 
nature,  and  was  hatching  schemes  for  their  destruction,  he 
had  the  coolness  and  hypocrisy  to  tell  the  Boston  men  that 
he  had  no  hostile  designs  against  these  near  neighbors  of 
his  and  that  they  were  needlessly  alarmed.  He  was  a  born 
liar,  and  false  to  a  degree  to  give  him  marked  eminence, 
even  in  the  circles  of  the  most  adroit  schemers  and  hypo- 
crites of  his  unfortunate  race.  He  was  a  past  master  in 
Machiavelianism. 

But  while  all  this  is  true,  it  is  also  true  that  Philip  had 
a  certain  subtle  power  of  leadership  which  was  very  pro- 
nounced.    So  much  must  be  accorded  to  him. 
Capacity  ft  [s  not  strange,  perhaps,  that  as  men  have 

for  leader-     differed  in  their  estimates  of  the  moral  char- 
skip  acter  of  this  chief,  so  they  have  differed  in 

their  estimates  of  his  intellectual  abilities.    One 
author  says,  "  the  talents  were  unquestionably  of  the  first 


THE    PILGRIMS  415 

order."  Another  says  he  had  neither  "  forethought "  nor 
"  heroism."  He  has  been  designated  by  one  writer  as  "  a 
mighty  prince ;  "  and  by  a  second,  who  was  in  at  his  death, 
as  "  a  doleful,  dirty  beast."  One  who  has  any  preconceived 
notions  of  his  gifts,  whether  mental  or  moral,  may  be  sure 
of  finding  writers  whose  opinions  coincide  with  his  own. 

Still,  whatever  may  be  said  to  the  contrary,  Philip  was  a 
leader.  He  had  the  art  of  persuasion.  He  could  impart 
his  purpose  to  other  minds.  He  could  awaken  enthusiasm 
for  the  cause  he  had  at  heart.  Assert  as  we  may  that  he 
had  no  marked  mental  gifts,  say  over  and  over  again  that 
he  was  without  foresight  and  courage,  reduce  his  moral 
qualities  —  the  moral  qualities  which  we  might  expect  to 
find  exemplified  in  the  chief  of  even  a  savage  tribe  —  it  is 
yet  a  fact  that  the  man  had  a  tremendous  power  of  some 
sort,  that  he  exerted  a  mighty  influence,  that  he  sowed  seeds 
which  matured  into  a  harvest  of  havoc  and  ruin,  and  that  he 
associated  his  name  in  such  tragic  fashion  with  a  dark 
page  in  New  England  history  that  it  will  endure  as  long  as 
the  history  itself  endures.  This  was  not  the  work  of  a  weak- 
ling, timid,  uncertain,  purposeless,  and  moving  in  any  direc- 
tion in  which  the  wind  might  chance  to  blow ;  but  of  a  man 
capable  of  putting  two  things  together,  of  exercising  fore- 
sight, and  largely  endowed  with  will,  force,  and  persistency. 

Very  early  in  his  career  the  scheme  of  forming  a  com- 
bination of  the  savage  nations  and  wiping  out  the  English 
took  place  in  Philip's  brain.  He  gave  years  of  thought  to 
the  project ;  and  he  wove  his  plot  with  the  skill  of  one  who 
has  not  a  little  power,  a  great  deal  of  cunning,  and  no  con- 
science. Under  his  manipulation  of  the  mistrusts  and 
prejudices  and  hates  of  his  people,  they  were  so  far  inflamed 
that  they  were  finally  hot  for  red-handed  war.  They 
avowed  their  intentions  and  declared  hostilities  by  making 
an  attack  on  Swansea  and  plundering  and  burning  houses. 
This  first  rude  assault  of  the  conflict  was  made  on  the  Ply- 
mouth colony.  It  occurred  on  the  last  days  of  June  in 
1675.  Soon  men  were  ambushed  and  shot  down  while  going 
to  and  from  their  houses,  or  walking  along  the  highways; 
other  towns  were  startled  from  their  midnight  slumbers  by 
the  waving  of  incendiary  torches  and  the  cry  of  fire ;  other 


416  THE    PILGRIMS 

murders  were  committed ;  and  war  in  all  its  fury  and  with 
all  its  horrors  was  raging  far  and  wide.  The  design  was 
first  of  all  to  overwhelm  and  annihilate  the  Pilgrims,  and 
then  to  sweep  out  in  a  wider  movement  and  carry  destruc- 
tion to  all  the  English  settlements  in  New  England. 


in 

The  task  Philip  had  in  hand  was  not  a  light  one.  The 
ranks  of  the  tribes  which  were  determined  to  adhere  to 
barbarism  were  greatly  thinned.  At  the 
Indian  breaking  out  of  the  war  it  is  probable  that  in 

ranks  an  New  England  there  were  less  than  twenty 

greatly  thousand  Indians.     In  the  Massachusetts  and 

reduced  Plymouth  colonies  there  could  not  have  been, 

so  it  is  estimated,  more  than  twelve  thousand 
natives.  Philip's  own  immediate  tribe  had  dwindled  to  not 
much  more  than  three  hundred  all  told.  The  whites  in  New 
England  had  increased  to  more  than  fifty  thousand.  In 
Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  and  Connecticut,  the  confeder- 
ated colonies,  the  white  population  numbered  over  forty 
thousand.  In  face  of  this  numerical  advantage  possessed 
by  the  English  the  savage  chieftain  had  to  organize  war. 
In  any  event  and  to  any  forecast  the  issue  must  have  seemed 
doubtful.  It  could  have  been  no  easy  matter,  therefore,  for 
Philip  to  persuade  other  savage  chieftains  that  the  chances 
of  success,  even  by  resorting  to  all  the  methods  of  surprise, 
treachery,  intimidation,  and  slaughter  known  to  Indian 
warfare,  were  good.  The  more  intelligent  of  them  must 
have  known  that  they  were  not  good. 

This,  however,  is  the  least  surprising  part  of  the  story. 
The  nations  and  the  tribes  of  the  nations  on  which  the  son 
of  Massasoit  could  rely  for  an  effective  cam- 
Feuds  and  paign  against  their  civilized  neighbors  were 
jealousies  alienated  from  each  other  by  long-standing 
to  be  feuds   and  jealousies.      Somehow,  if   anything 

reconciled  was  to  De  accomplished,  they  must  be  recon- 
ciled, informed  with  a  common  aim,  inflamed 
with  a  common  passion,  welded  into  unity,  and  prepared  to 
deliver  a  blow  which  should  have  in  it  the  terror  of  a  con* 


THE    PILGRIMS  417 

certed  onset  and  the  crushing  weight  of  a  combined 
strength.  Insignificant  as  his  own  following  was,  he 
brought  the  leaders  of  the  Nipmucks,  a  formidable  foe 
when  all  their  groups  were  united,  and  the  leaders  of  the 
Narragansetts,  with  their  four  thousand  warriors,  to  his 
way  of  thinking.  Not  without  cunning  and  force,  not  with- 
out skilful  intrigues  and  artful  persuasions,  we  may  be 
sure,  was  this  result,  so  essential  to  his  object,  secured  by 
Philip. 

But  this  is  what  he  did.  To  confront  a  triple  alliance  of 
white  men  he  brought  about  a  triple  alliance  of  red  men; 
and  when  the  storm  of  open  war  broke  upon  the  country  it 
was  organization  against  organization.  Such  results  do 
not  come  of  themselves ;  and  just  then  there  was  nobody  in 
sight  who  could  have  secured  this  combination  of  the  savage 
tribes  except  the  wily  Wampanoag  chief. 

IV 

Still  further,  when  the  conflict  was  actually  on,  and 
torch  and  tomahawk  were  doing  their  deadly  work, 
Philip  found  to  his  chagrin  and  sorrow  that 
Part  taken  there  was  a  large  body  of  Christian  Indians 
ky  who  could  not  be  detached  from  their  loyalty 

Christian  to  the  English,  but  who,  on  the  contrary,  would 
Indians  gjve  them  aid  and  comfort  in  the  life-and-death 

struggle.  Surely  the  missionaries  who  labored 
for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  in  the  early  days  of  the 
settlement  of  the  Plymouth  colony  had  their  reward.  They 
had  their  reward  in  the  good  done  to  the  savages ;  and  they 
had  the  further  reward  of  seeing  those  who  had  been 
brought  into  the  faith  of  our  Lord  become  an  important 
factor  in  defense  at  an  hour  when  the  very  existence  of  the 
colony  was  at  stake. 

This  statement  applies  to  other  colonies  of  New  Eng- 
land; but  it  has  special  pertinency  of  application  to  the 
Plymouth  colony.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  labors  of 
Eliot  and  his  associates  in  Massachusetts,  and  of  the  May- 
hews  in  Martha's  Vineyard  and  Nantucket,  and  of  Bourne 
and  his  fellow-workers  on  the  cape,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how 

27 


418  THE    PILGRIMS 

the  Plymouth  colony  could  have  survived  this  terrific  shock. 
The  Nausites  alone,  had  they  remained  in  their  unevangel- 
ized  state  and  at  enmity  with  the  English,  would  have  been 
a  serious  menace  to  them  at  all  times,  and  especially  at  this 
time.  The  Bay  colony,  more  compact  and  far  more  pow- 
erful, might  have  fought  her  way  through  successfully. 
So  might  others  of  the  colonies.  Judging  from  this 
distance  and  taking  all  conditions  into  account,  it  seems 
probable  that  Plymouth  would  have  been  pushed  to  the 
wall. 

It  must  be  gratefully  conceded,  therefore,  that  the  Chris- 
tian Indians  averted  a  dire  disaster.    Distrusted  at  first,  as 

was  not  altogether  unnatural,  they  came  to  be 
Immense  the  recognized  guides  of  the  little  companies 
value  of  an(j  squads  of  white  men  in  conducting  their 
their  partisan    warfare,    and    their    unfailing    sup- 

services  porters  in  hot  and  dangerous  contests.     It  was 

the  unerring  bullet  of  a  Christian  Indian  which 
laid  Philip  in  the  dust.  It  was  under  the  daring  lead  of 
another  Christian  Indian  that  Church  was  enabled  to  drop 
down  over  a  steep,  shelving  ledge  into  the  presence  of  Ana- 
wan,  the  able  lieutenant  of  Philip,  and  there,  in  what  was 
supposed  to  be  his  inaccessible  stronghold,  surprise  him  into 
surrender.  Indian  captives  were  put  in  charge  of  Christian 
Indians,  and  the  guardians  never  betrayed  their  trust. 
The  Nipmucks  in  Massachusetts  afford  an  exception  —  or 
some  of  them  at  any  rate ;  but  for  the  most  part,  the  pray- 
ing Indians,  as  they  were  called,  kept  the  faith  and  were 
faithful.  They  added  worthy  names  to  the  roll  of  martyrs. 
The  Old  Colony  was  abundantly  compensated  for  all  her 
outlays  in  behalf  of  the  wild  tribes  into  the  midst  of  which 
she  was  thrown.  No  equal  amount  of  money,  time,  and 
energy  spent  by  the  Pilgrims  ever  had  so  much  defensive 
value  as  that  which  was  devoted  to  winning  the  untutored 
children  of  the  forest  to  the  higher  and  better  life  of  true 
disciples  of  the  divine  Master.  It  was  not  alone  philan- 
thropy —  it  was  a  military  measure  of  highest  importance 
and  it  was  statesmanship  of  the  first  order.  Others  may 
belittle  efforts  to  bring  barbarous  peoples  under  the  influ- 
ence of  faith  in  the  Son  of  God  and  a  Christian  civilization, 


THE    PILGRIMS  419 

if  they  will ;  but  words  in  disparagement  of  such!  endeavors 
must  ever  have  a  strange  sound  coming  from  the  lips  of 
those  whose  ancestors  had  any  association  with  Plymouth 
Rock. 


The  war  ran  on  for  more  than  a  year  and  a  half.  It 
began,  as  we  have  seen,  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Ply- 
mouth colony.  The  primary  object  of  it  was 
Course  t0   exterminate  the  Plymouth  people.     From 

of  the  the  beginning  the  struggle  was  fierce  and  san- 

war  guinary.      Massacre    followed   massacre,    and 

town  after  town  went  up  in  flames.  The  open- 
ing attack  on  Swansea  was  quickly  succeeded  by  attacks  on 
Dartmouth,  Middleborough,  and  Taunton.  Encounters 
were  frequent.  Church  was  sent  to  the  front  at  once ;  but 
the  conduct  of  the  war  was  not  in  his  hands.  Had  the  direc- 
tion of  operations  been  turned  over  to  him  at  the  first,  as  it 
was  at  the  last,  he  would  have  made  short  work  of  Philip 
and  his  allies  ;  but  he  was  hampered  by  his  superiors  ;  and 
advantages  which  he  gained  in  early  skirmishes  with  the  foe 
were  not  pursued  and  made  decisive. 

At  the  end  of  a  six  weeks'  campaign  the  scene  of  war 
shifted  from  the  bounds  of  Plymouth  to  the  territory  of 
Massachusetts.  Here  it  was  the  same  blood- 
War  curdling  story  of  ambush,  surprise,  incendiary 
shifted  flame,  marauding  adventure,  capture,  and 
from  Ply-  death.  Through  the  autumn  and  winter,  and 
mouth  to  Up  t0  the  edge  of  spring,  the  awful  tragedy 
Massachu-  occupied  the  stage.  The  abandonment  of  Men- 
setts  Q»on?  the  burning  of  Deerfield,  the  attacks  on 
Hadley  and  Springfield,  the  destruction  of 
Northfield,  the  frightful  slaughter  on  both  sides  in  the 
battle  which  raged  about  the  fort  of  the  Narragansetts  in 
their  swamp  retreat,  the  siege  of  Brookfield,  the  harrowing 
story  of  Mrs.  Rowlandson  and  her  children  captured  in  the 
assault  on  Lancaster,  the  surprise  of  Medfield,  the  sharp 
conflict,  the  property  losses  and  the  escapes  at  Groton,  the 
wiping  out  of  Marlborough,  the  melancholy  defeat  of  the 


420  THE    PILGRIMS 

gallant  Wadsworth  and  his  force  of  fifty  men  at  Sudbury, 
the  sudden  and  overwhelming  assault  made  on  the  Indians 
and  the  failure  through  panic  to  reap  the  fruits  of  the 
victory  at  Turner's  Falls,  and  the  lamentable  deaths  of 
Captains  Beers,  Marshall,  Lathrop,  Johnson,  Wadsworth, 
Turner,  and  others,  along  with  many  hundreds  of  brave 
men  who  were  in  the  ranks  of  the  various  companies,  fall 
into  this  period  of  horror. 


VI 

Meantime,  having  involved  many  communities  in  destruc- 
tion and  brought  many  lives  to  an  untimely  end,  the  war 

swept  back  from  the  territory  of  the  Bay  col- 
War  swept  onv  an(j  began  its  ravages  anew  within  the 
back  into  bounds  of  the  Plymouth  settlement.  William 
Plymouth      Clark's    garrison-house,    located    within    three 

miles  of  the  Rock,  was  attacked  and  burned. 
The  men  were  all  at  church.  By  an  act  of  criminal  care- 
lessness the  gate  of  the  house  was  left  open.  The  Indians 
seized  their  opportunity,  entered,  killed  eleven  women  and 
children,  including  Mrs.  Clark,  took  what  plunder  they 
wished,  set  fire  to  the  building,  and  fled.  This  was  the  first 
rude  touch  of  the  heavy  hand  of  war  felt  within  the  pre- 
cincts of  the  town  of  Plymouth.  A  couple  of  weeks  later, 
Captain  Michael  Peirce,  of  Scituate,  started  out  with  a 
hardy  company  of  fifty  of  his  fellow  townsmen,  and  twenty 
friendly  Indians  from  Cape  Cod,  to  beat  back  the  aggres- 
sive enemy.  He  met  the  foe  in  large  numbers  at  a  point 
called  "  Study  Hill,"  in  what  is  now  Pawtucket,  and  he 
and  his  company  were  annihilated.  Eight  of  the  friendly 
Indians  escaped,  and  those  were  all.  It  was  a  dark  hour. 
Darker  hours  were  to  follow.  Rehoboth  was  attacked 
and  more  than  threescore  houses  and  barns  were  reduced 
to  ashes.  Dartmouth  and  Middleborough  had  been  aban- 
doned, and  the  destruction  of  residences  in  those  towns 
was  a  simple  matter.  In  addition  to  these  places  the  part 
of  Plymouth  which  is  now  called  Halifax  was  burned. 
Bridgewater  suffered,  though  no  one  of  her  people  was  mas- 


THE    PILGRIMS  421 

sacred,  and  not  one  of  her  soldiers  was  lost  in  battle.  Taun- 
ton, like  Bridgewater,  escaped  with  small  property  losses, 
but  she  suffered  more  in  men.  Five  of  her  citizens  lost 
their  lives  at  the  hands  of  the  Indians.  Scituate  felt 
the  full  weight  of  the  blow.  Besides  the  loss  of  Peirce  and 
his  half  a  hundred  of  daring  comrades  who  fell  in  one  en- 
gagement, this  town  was  desperately  assaulted  and  more 
than  twenty  buildings,  one  of  which  was  a  sawmill,  were 
given  to  the  flames,  and  six  men  of  family  were  slain.  There 
were  other  disasters  and  sorrows.  Along  the  border-line 
which  separated  the  English  and  the  Indians  men  took 
their  lives  in  their  hands  when  they  went  forth  to  their 
daily  tasks;  and  wives  and  mothers  left  alone  with  their 
babes  knew  not  what  bereavements  a  night  might  bring 
them.  Eternal  vigilance  was  the  price  the  people  had  to 
pay  for  their  lives,  and  the  wonder  is  that  all  were  not  worn 
out  by  the  constant  strain  of  anxiety. 


VII 

The  end  was  in  sight.    After  a  year  or  so  of  the  consum- 
ing struggle  the  Indians  found  their  fighting  forces  reduced 

to  small  numbers  and  their  resources  of  all 
End  of  sorts  greatly  diminished.    They  had  staked  all 

war  in  on  jj^  i^ue  an(J  were  about  to  lose, 

sight  The  most  hopeful   feature  of  the  outlook, 

however,  was  turning  the  direction  of  military 
operations  over  to  Church.  The  authorities  had  been  ex- 
perimenting in  generals;  at  last  they  found  their  Grant. 
Others  had  done  well  —  some  of  them  remarkably  well ; 
but  Church  was  both  a  born  strategist  and  a  born  fighter. 
After  two  or  three  weeks  of  active  campaigning  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war,  he  had  been  practically  retired  from  the 
service  for  the  reason  that  his  policies  and  methods  did  not 
commend  themselves  to  those  at  the  head  of  affairs.  But 
he  knew  Indians  quite  as  well  as  they  knew  themselves.  He 
could  meet  them  on  their  own  ground  and  at  their  own  tac- 
tics. He  had  the  courage  to  brave  dangers,  the  wariness  to 
avoid  traps,  and  the  instinct  and  experience  which  told  him 


422  THE    PILGRIMS 

when  and  where  to  strike.  He  had  the  magnanimity  of  all 
large-natured  personalities.  He  could  use  friendly  Indians 
in  a  way  to  make  one  white  man  with  a  red  man  at  his  side  a 
vastly  more  effective  force  than  two  white  men  could  be. 
Very  soon  Philip  was  tracked  to  his  lair  and  shot.  Nor  was 
it  long  before  Anawan  was  in  the  toils  and  compelled  to 
yield  up  his  life. 

This  practically  ended  the  war.    There  were  still  enemies 
lurking  in  the  swamps.     Cattle  were  stolen,  lives  were  not 

considered  safe  in  exposed  places,  and  the  Eng- 
The  end  ^h  were  not  altogether  at  ease.     Other  expe- 

reached  ditions  had  to  be  organized ;  but  these  were  to 

pursue  a  timid,  skulking  foe.  There  were  skir- 
mishes ;  yet  these  were  only  the  low  and  distant  rumblings 
of  a  storm  that  had  spent  its  force  and  passed  over. 


VIH 

The  cost  of  the  war  on  both  sides  was  great;  but  the 
results  were  permanent.  Philip  was  dead.  The  power  of 
the  Wampanoags,  the  Narragansetts,  and  the 
Results  Nipmucks    was     broken,     and    their    wasted 

of  the  strength  could  never  be  restored.     More  than 

war  two  thousand  of  the  red  warriors  had  been 

made  to  bite  the  dust.  The  sacrifices  and  suf- 
ferings of  the  English  were  likewise  appalling.  Thirteen 
towns  were  destroyed.  Many  other  towns  were  damaged. 
Six  hundred  dwelling-houses  went  up  in  flame.  Not  less 
than  six  hundred  people  —  the  most  of  them  men,  and  some 
of  them  the  foremost  men  in  their  several  communities,  were 
killed.  Few  were  the  homes  in  which  there  was  not  mourn- 
ing for  the  dead.  Private  property  to  the  extent  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds  was  destroyed.  Indus- 
try was  diverted  from  many  of  its  ordinary  channels ;  and 
prosperity  was  greatly  hindered.  Of  the  public  outlay, 
twenty-seven  thousand  pounds  fell  to  Plymouth  colony. 

In  connection  with  this  bloody  conflict  two  facts  may  be 
set  down  to  the  everlasting  credit  of  the  Pilgrims. 

One  is  that  it  was  a  Plymouth  man  —  Captain  Benja- 


THE    PILGRIMS  423 

min  Church,  whom  Goodwin  well  calls  "  the  Myles  Standish 
of  the  second  generation  "  —  who  finally  conducted  the  cam- 
paign to  victory.  That  victory  made  it  certain  that  in  due 
time  there  were  to  be  no  more  stealthy  approaches  of  a  wily 
foe,  no  more  incendiary  torches,  no  more  tomahawks,  no 
more  deadly  arrows  flying  at  noonday,  to  bring  terror  and 
harm  to  these  sturdy  men  and  much-enduring  women  who 
were  laying  the  foundations  of  a  puissant  nation. 

The  other  is  that  the  debt  contracted  in  carrying  on  the 
war  was  paid  down  to  the  last  farthing.  It  was  a  stagger- 
ing debt.  It  would  have  been  a  heavy  load  to  carry  at  any 
time.  It  was  almost,  if  not  quite,  four  pounds  to  each  man, 
woman,  and  child  within  the  jurisdiction.  To  have  this 
saddled  on  top  of  their  private  losses,  at  a  time,  too,  when 
their  industry  had  been  checked,  and  many  of  their  enter- 
prises had  been  brought  to  a  standstill,  and  there  was  noth- 
ing in  which  they  could  engage  with  the  expectation  of  quick 
and  large  returns,  was  little  less  than  crushing.  To  their 
everlasting  honor,  be  it  said,  they  paid  it  all.  The  fathers 
of  the  first  generation  set  the  example  of  paying  all  their 
money  obligations  in  full.  The  children  of  the  second  gen- 
eration followed  in  the  footsteps  of  their  immediate  forbears 
and  never  exposed  themselves  to  the  charge  of  repudiating 
an  honest  debt.  The  cloud  which  hung  over  the  colony  of 
the  Pilgrims  for  more  than  a  year  was  a  dark  one;  but  it 
had  a  silver  lining :  and  the  courage,  the  high  purpose,  the 
trust,  the  integrity,  and  the  steadfastness  of  the  people  were 
made  to  shine  with  a  fresh  luster. 


XXI 

THE    CLOSING    YEARS 


The  policy  of  James  TL  had  aroused  such  bitter  feeling  in  America  that 
William  must  needs  move  with  caution.  Accordingly  he  did  not  seek  to 
unite  New  York  with  New  England,  and  he  did  not  think  it  worth  while 
to  carry  out  the  attack  which  James  had  only  begun  upon  Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island.  .  .  .  But  in  the  case  of  the  little  Colony  founded  by  the 
Pilgrims  of  the  Mayflower  there  were  no  obstacles.  She  was  now  annexed 
to  Massachusetts.  —  John  Fiske. 

In  October,  1691,  Plymouth  was  .  .  .  rescued  from  the  grasp  of  New 
York,  but  only  to  fall  into  that  of  Massachusetts.  ...  The  body-politic 
created  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower  lived  only  in  history. 

John  A.  Goodwin. 


XXI 

THE    CLOSING   YEARS 

THE  closing  years  of  the  independent  existence  of  the 
Plymouth  colony  were  marked  by  sharp  pains  and 
cruel  disappointments.  Experiences  of  this  kind  were 
not  new  to  the  Pilgrims.  Repeatedly  and  in  many  ways 
they  had  had  their  patience  under  trials  and  their  staying 
qualities  put  to  the  test.  There  was  still  another  cup  of 
bitterness  to  be  pressed  to  their  lips.  Near  the  end  of  their 
career  as  a  separate  and  self-governing  state  they  had  to 
bear  a  weight  of  tyranny  that  was  not  only  humiliating  but 
exceedingly  galling.  One  cannot  recount  the  facts  without 
a  feeling  of  fresh  indignation  against  oppression,  and  of 
tender  sympathy  with  those  who  were  forced  to  suffer  so 
keenly  under  the  heavy  hand  of  arbitrary  power. 


In  1686  the  New  England  colonies  were  consolidated. 
Sir  Edmund  Andros  was  sent  over  by  the  king,  James  II, 

to  take  control  and  administer  affairs.  He 
Andros  was  then  about  fifty  years  of  age.     He  had 

and  his  the  training  and  experience  of  a  soldier,  and 

adminis-  Jjg  counted  it  a  cardinal  virtue  to  obey  orders, 
tration  ^  dozen  years  before  he  had  been  made  the 

governor  of  New  York.  He  carried  things 
with  a  high  hand,  and  in  the  early  eighties  was  recalled. 
Coming  under  the  second  commission,  he  was  not  new  to 
America ;  and  America  had  a  pretty  clear  idea  of  what  to 
expect  from  him.  Without  tact  and  with  little  sentiment  in 
his  nature,  he  would  stick  at  nothing  he  was  required  to  do. 
From  the  start  he  showed  himself  to  be  the  willing  tool  of 


428  THE    PILGRIMS 

his  master.  He  was  to  be  aided  by  a  council,  which  like 
himself  was  to  be,  not  elected,  but  appointed.  When 
brought  together,  this  board  of  advisers  was  found  to  in- 
clude quite  a  large  number  of  intelligent  and  reputable  men. 
Some  of  the  best  and  most  competent  representatives  of  the 
Plymouth  colony  were  amongst  those  appointed.  But  the 
trustworthy  men,  for  reasons  not  far  to  seek,  soon  fell  to 
the  rear,  and  the  close  advisers  of  the  governor  dwindled  to 
a  little  coterie  who  were  more  than  ready  to  "  crook  the 
pregnant  hinges  of  the  knee  that  thrift  might  follow  f awn- 
ing." They  were  tories  before  the  day  of  tories  in  this 
western  world,  and  their  namesakes  of  the  Revolutionary 
period  could  not  deny  the  kinship  though  they  had  little 
occasion  to  be  proud  of  it.  One  of  them,  as  we  shall  see,  was 
an  Old  Colony  man.    Verily,  he  had  his  reward. 

It  is  only  in  its  bearings  on  the  Plymouth  colony,  how- 
ever, that  the  arbitrary  rule  of  Andros  concerns  us  here. 
His  hand  was  heaviest  on  the  Bay  colony ;  for  his  official 
residence  was  at  Boston.  Besides,  there  was  more  in  Boston 
to  challenge  his  authority  and  dispute  his  usurpations  than 
amongst  the  more  quiet  folk  of  the  older  settlement;  but 
the  Plymouth  people  felt  the  oppression  keenly  enough  to 
make  them  groan  and  cry  out  in  no  mild  terms  of  protest. 

Here  are  some  of  the  indignities  and  wrongs  which  had  to 
be  endured  under  the  administration  of  this  imported  gov- 
ernor.   Their  own  governor  —  the  governor  of 
Indignities    their   own    free   choice  —  like  the   other   gov- 
and  ernors  of  New  England,  was  displaced.     The 

wrongs  press  was  muzzled.      Freedom  of  worship  — 

one  of  the  most  sacred  articles  in  their  political 
and  religious  creed  —  was  threatened.  Persons  having 
probate  business  in  hand  had  to  go  to  Boston  to  transact  it. 
Titles  to  lands  were  put  in  jeopardy  and  large  fees  were 
exacted  for  confirming  them.  Indeed,  the  claim  was  that 
through  the  abrogation  of  the  charter  of  the  Bay  colony, 
all  titles  to  lands  in  that  jurisdiction  reverted  to  James ; 
and  that,  inasmuch  as  the  Plymouth  colony  had  never  had 
a  charter,  the  lands  in  any  event  belonged  to  the  crown. 
This  was  exceedingly  annoying  as  well  as  unjust  and  bur- 
densome.   Town  meetings,  which  played  such  an  important 


THE    PILGRIMS  429 

part  in  the  system  of  government,  were  deprived  of  most  of 
their  rights  and  lost  their  significance.  Laws  were  to  be 
made  by  the  governor  and  his  council,  subject  only  to  con- 
formity to  the  laws  of  England  and  the  royal  sanction. 
Anybody  might  be  called  upon  to  take  the  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  the  king.  Currency  was  to  be  regulated  by  this 
new  executive.  Taxes  were  no  longer  self-imposed  by  the 
vote  of  free  citizens,  but  were  determined  by  the  chief  exec- 
utive and  his  over-acquiescent  advisers.  Clark's  Island, 
which  had  been  set  aside  by  the  freemen  of  Plymouth  to  the 
support  of  the  poor,  was  turned  over  to  Nathaniel  Clark. 
Clark  was  a  son  of  the  colony,  but  a  favorite  of  the  gov- 
ernor from  overseas  for  the  reason  that  he  had  bowed  so 
subserviently  to  his  will.  On  some  trumped-up  claim  the 
island  was  to  be  made  his  private  property.  When  protest 
was  made  by  Ichabod  Wiswell,  the  able  and  public-spirited 
minister  of  Duxbury,  and  Elder  Faunce,  they  were  fined  for 
their  impertinence,  and  otherwise  insulted  and  wronged. 
Before  the  business  was  finally  settled,  the  minister  was 
treated  to  a  taste  of  the  humiliation  and  hardship  with 
which  malignant  ingenuity  can  always  torment  its  victims. 

From  the  closing  days  of  1686  till  the  spring  of  1689  — 
about  two  years  and  a  half  —  this  state  of  things  continued. 
It  was  the  old  tyranny  under  new  conditions,  but  the  old 
tyranny  still.  It  had  not  reached  the  severity  of  the  Lon- 
don, Norwich,  and  Scrooby  days;  nevertheless  it  was 
headed  that  way,  and,  if  unchecked,  would  soon  come  to  it. 
All  that  was  most  valuable  and  sacred  in  the  great  venture 
made  by  the  Pilgrims  was  at  stake.  Religious  liberty, 
political  liberty,  the  rights  of  property,  were  alike  put  in 
jeopardy.  The  wide  diffusion  of  knowledge  was  discour- 
aged, the  enjoyment  of  freedom  was  restrained,  the  exercise 
of  self-government  was  denied.  It  was  an  attempt  to  pluck 
up  the  oak  of  liberty,  which  had  had  such  a  healthy  and 
vigorous  growth  in  its  new  soil,  and  set  it  back,  with  roots 
trimmed,  into  the  pot  of  tyranny  from  which  it  had  been 
transplanted.  The  people  held  their  breath  and  bided  their 
hour. 


430  THE    PILGRIMS 


II 

Relief  came  with  a  suddenness  which  was  quite  as  sur- 
prising as  it  was  gratifying.     When  word  reached  Boston 
that  William  had  set  foot  on  English  soil,  and 
Timely  was  making  his  way  to  the  seat  which  James 

relief  would  have  to  vacate,  the  outraged  people  of 

the  community  rose  up  in  the  might  of  a  right- 
eous wrath,  seized  the  governor,  and  compelled  him  to  re- 
sign. Four  days  later  the  good  news  reached  Plymouth. 
This  put  things  back  where  they  were  when  Andros  arrived 
and  assumed  control  of  affairs. 

Committees  of  public  safety  were  extemporized.    In  some 
of  the  colonies  there  was  a  little  more  deliberation  than  in 
others ;    but  in  all  of  them  the  people  sprang 
Governors      at  once  to  their  feet.    They  knew  what  ought  to 
restored  De  done,  and  they  did  it.     The  superseded  gov- 

ernors were  called  upon  to  step  into  their  old 
places  and  resume  their  old  duties. 

In  Massachusetts,  on  the  day  following  the  imprisonment 
of  Andros,  Simon  Bradstreet,  who  was  then  eighty-seven 
years  old,  and  who  had  been  put  out  of  the  governorship 
through  the  administrations  of  both  Dudley  and  Andros, 
was  restored  to  his  office  by  one  of  those  self-created  com- 
mittees, though  he  did  not  attempt  to  exercise  the  regular 
functions  of  his  office  till  somewhat  later.  In  Connecticut, 
in  accordance  with  "  some  general  understanding,  a  number 
of  principal  men,"  got  together  and  submitted  to  a  mass 
meeting  of  freemen  the  question  whether  those  who  were  in 
authority  when  Andros  came  should  be  restored  to  place 
and  power.  The  question  was  answered  in  the  affirmative ; 
and  Robert  Treat  became  once  more  the  acknowledged  head 
of  the  colony.  He  was  kept  in  his  place  for  nine  years 
more.  In  Rhode  Island  things  took  the  same  course;  but 
Walter  Clarke,  the  displaced  governor,  had  no  heart  for 
the  controversy,  and  declined  what  seemed  to  him  the  peril- 
ous honor. 

At  Plymouth,  Thomas  Hinckley,  who  was  first  elected 
governor  in  1680,  and  who  had  been  annually  reelected  up 


THE    PILGRIMS  431 

to  the  time  of  Sir  Edmund,  walked  to  the  front  and  sat  down 
in  the  chair  of  chief  executive  just  as  if  there  had  been 
no  break.  The  only  thing  in  the  transaction  which  showed 
heat  as  well  as  a  firm  determination  to  have  their  wrongs  set 
right  was  the  arrest  of  Nathaniel  Clark.  As  we  have  seen, 
he  was  an  Old  Colony  man,  who  had  lent  himself  heart  and 
soul  to  the  schemes  of  Andros,  and  had  endeavored,  through 
the  favor  of  his  chief,  to  secure  possession  of  Clark's 
Island.  He  was  imprisoned,  put  in  irons,  and  sent  on  the 
same  ship  with  Andros  to  England.  On  the  other  side  of 
the  water  the  officials  took  a  different  view  of  the  case  from 
that  taken  on  this  side,  and  Clark  came  back  rewarded 
rather  than  punished  for  what  he  had  done.  He  never  re- 
gained the  favor  of  his  fellow-citizens ;  and  the  infamy  of 
his  attempt  to  secure  possession  of  the  island,  which  had 
come  to  have  a  sort  of  sacredness  in  the  estimation  of  the 
Plymouth  people,  followed  the  man  to  his  grave  and  can 
never  be  dissociated  from  his  name. 


Ill 

It  is  one  of  the  most  edifying  spectacles  in  our  political 
history  to  see  how  democracy  acquitted  itself  on  this  trying 

occasion.  A  stone  had  been  dropped  into  the 
An  waters  and  the  waters  had  parted ;  but  as  soon 

edifying  as  the  stone  was  out  of  sight  they  flowed  to- 
spectacle        gether  again  and  the  surface  was  as  smooth  as 

ever.  To  be  able  to  recur  to  such  an  instance 
gives  one  a  new  confidence  in  the  political  instincts  and 
sagacity  of  a  self-governing  people,  and  a  fresh  assurance 
that  men  who  love  liberty  and  are  trained  in  the  habit  of 
liberty,  will  know  how  to  meet  emergencies  in  which  liberty 
is  in  peril.  It  would  seem  as  if  these  immediate  descendants 
of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  heirs  of  the  great  Mayflower 
Compact  were  not  in  need  of  further  lessons  on  the  value  of 
the  equal  rights  of  man,  and  the  importance  of  maintaining 
them  at  all  hazards,  than  they  had  learned  at  the  feet  of 
their  sires;  but  no  doubt  this  doctrine  of  equal  rights, 
which  they  made  central  to  their  system  of  government  and 


432  THE    PILGRIMS 

on  which  they  laid  such  emphasis,  was  far  more  precious  to 
them  after  they  had  been  at  school  to  oppression  for  a 
couple  of  years.  No  doubt,  too,  that  the  memory  of  Andros 
and  his  heavy  hand  was  a  potent  factor  in  the  determination 
to  stand  by  their  democracy  and  maintain  it,  or  die  in  the 
attempt,  when  Hutchinson  and  Gage  occupied  the  seats  of 
the  mighty  in  Boston  and  were  doing  the  will  of  George  III. 


IV 

The  new  charter  for  Massachusetts  brought  over  from 
England  by  the  new  governor,  William  Phipps,  was  signed 
in  October,  1691.  This  charter  embraced  the 
Plymouth  old  Colony.  When  it  was  set  in  operation  on 
united  to  the  following  year  the  independent  political  ex- 
Massachu-  istence  of  the  little  state  founded  by  the  Pil- 
setts  grims,  and  cherished  by  them  and  their  children 

as  the  apple  of  the  eye,  came  to  an  end.  In  the 
light  of  any  alternative  of  which  we  can  think,  it  would 
hardly  be  reasonable  to  say  that  the  end  was  untimely. 

From  the  records  of  the  transaction  which  have  been  pre- 
served it  is  evident  that  the  colonists  held  divergent  views 
on  the  wisdom  of  this  measure.  The  colony  had  never  had 
a  charter.  The  time  had  come  when  it  appeared  to  be  im- 
practicable to  try  to  go  on  without  one.  The  people  in 
general,  or  a  large  majority  of  them,  were  eager  to  secure  a 
charter,  and  under  the  shelter  of  it,  to  continue  as  they  were 
—  an  independent,  self-governing  community.  Some  of  the 
leaders  were  suspected  of  entertaining  opinions  on  this  ques- 
tion which  were  not  in  harmony  with  the  prevailing 
sentiment. 

Nevertheless,  there  was  a  united  and  earnest  effort  made 
to  obtain  the  charter  and  thus  preserve  and  perpetuate  the 
independent  life  of  the  colony.  Agents  were  appointed  to 
present  the  case  to  the  English  officials.  These  agents  were 
Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  of  England,  Increase  Mather,  of  Bos- 
ton, and  Ichabod  Wiswell,  of  Duxbury.  There  were  three 
difficulties  in  the  way.  It  was  in  the  mind  of  the  English 
government  to  annex  the  Plymouth  colony  to  New  York. 


THE    PILGRIMS  433 

Money  was  needed  to  prosecute  the  request  for  a  charter  to 
a  successful  issue,  and  Plymouth  was  too  poor  to  raise  the 
sum  required.  Mather  was  only  half-hearted  in  his  advo- 
cacy of  the  wishes  of  the  colony.  He  prevented,  so  it  is 
claimed,  the  annexation  of  Plymouth  to  New  York;  but 
when  it  came  to  the  point  of  uniting  the  Old  Colony  to  the 
Bay  colony  it  is  charged  that  he  was  lukewarm  in  his 
efforts  to  preserve  the  interests  of  the  Plymouth  people. 

Be  all  this  as  it  may,  the  charter  was  not  obtained.  Ply- 
mouth was  absorbed  by  Massachusetts ;  and  from  that  day 
to  this  the  commonwealth  of  the  Pilgrims  has  been  an  inte- 
gral part  of  the  commonwealth  of  the  Puritans. 


As  already  intimated,  this  was  a  consummation  to  be 
desired.  Limited  in  area,  small  in  the  number  of  its  inhabit- 
ants, without  resources  to  yield  wealth,  without 
A  consum-  commodities  and  harbors  to  attract  commerce, 
mationto  the  Old  Colony  could  hardly  have  been  ex- 
be  desired  pected  to  develop  into  a  commanding  state. 
While  we  sympathize  with  the  people  in  their 
keen  disappointment  over  the  loss  of  their  civic  unity  and 
independence,  it  is  impossible  not  to  feel  that  it  was  better 
on  all  accounts  for  the  two  colonies  to  become  one ;  and  that 
the  men  who  entertained  this  view  at  the  time  were  the  wiser 
statesmen.  Goodwin  says  that  "  this  result  was  bitterly  de- 
plored by  the  people  of  Plymouth,  and  Hinckley  lost  friends 
through  covertly  promoting  it."  Thacher  says  that  "  it 
appears  that  some  distinguished  individuals  were  dissatis- 
fied with  the  union  of  the  two  colonies,  but  Governor  Hinck- 
ley was  well  reconciled  to  the  measure,  and  it  is  clearly 
understood  that  the  union  was  at  no  period  a  subject  of 
regret  with  the  people  generally."  These  two  statements 
are  not  so  far  apart  as  they  seem  to  be  on  the  surface ;  and 
they  show  clearly  that  the  instincts  of  the  wisest  leaders, 
and  the  sober,  second  thought  of  the  people  at  large,  were 
in  favor  of  a  step  which  is  now  seen  to  have  been  inevitable. 
Plymouth  went  where  she  belonged.     Her  historic  associa- 

28 


434  THE    PILGRIMS 

tions,  her  opinions  and  sentiments,  her  methods  and  habits, 
her  location  and  identity  of  interests,  and  the  gravitations 
of  her  life,  fitted  her  in  a  preeminent  degree  for  union  with 
her  sister  colony  of  the  Bay.  Plymouth  did  not  lose,  but 
gained  by  the  union.  As  Queen  Mary,  whom  the  loyal  col- 
onists were  prompt  to  acknowledge,  when  with  her  husband 
she  ascended  the  throne  of  England,  did  not  surrender,  but 
preserved  the  dignity  and  power  of  her  royal  house  by 
merging  her  life  in  the  life  of  William,  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  so  the  weaker  colony  was  saved  to  all  that  was  best 
in  the  possibilities  of  the  future  by  coming  into  vital  rela- 
tions with  the  stronger.  It  was  a  victorious  defeat.  The 
Pilgrims  lost  their  political  identity  only  to  find  it  again  in 
the  larger  life  and  wider  glory  of  a  commonwealth  whose 
achievements  in  learning  and  liberty,  in  extending  an  even- 
handed  justice  to  all,  and  in  character-building,  may  well 
challenge  the  admiration  of  mankind.  In  the  consumma- 
tion of  this  union  each  colony  added  something  valuable  to 
the  other,  and  each  colony  received  something  valuable  from 
the  other.  Plymouth  contributed  the  immortal  names  of 
Bradford,  Brewster,  and  Standish,  and  a  record  of  seventy 
years  of  heroic  daring  and  splendid  achievements  in  self- 
government,  to  the  enrichment  of  the  commonwealth  of  the 
Bay  State ;  and  in  turn  entered  into  a  full  share  in  the  in- 
heritance of  the  names  of  Winthrop,  Endicott,  and  Cotton, 
and  of  the  memorable  deeds  wrought  by  them  and  their 
successors  through  all  the  years  which  have  followed. 
Neither  would  Massachusetts  mean  so  much  were  she  not 
able  to  identify  her  history  with  Plymouth  Rock ;  nor  would 
Plymouth  Rock  mean  so  much  had  not  the  significance  of 
it  been  caught  and  carried  forward  in  the  life,  laws,  cus- 
toms, and  institutions  of  Massachusetts.  Bradford  and 
Winthrop  lock  hands  in  the  model  commonwealth  of  the 
world. 


XXII 
LESSONS    TAUGHT    BY   THE   PILGRIMS 


History  ought  surely  in  some  degree,  if  it  is  worth  anything,  to  anticipate 
the  lessons  of  time.  We  shall  all,  no  doubt,  be  wise  after  the  event ;  we  study 
history  that  we  may  be  wise  before  the  event.  —  John  Robert  Seeley. 

The  story  of  the  Pilgrims  has  all  the  elements  of  a  fascinating  romance. 
When  it  is  read  in  the  light  of  what  they  have  produced  and  in  the  spirit  of 
sympathy  which  appreciates  and  enjoys  the  religious  and  civil  liberty  we 
inherit,  it  is  fitted  beyond  most  uninspired  records  to  kindle  exalted  ideas 
of  citizenship  and  to  stimulate  young  and  old  to  self-denying  service  of 
country  and  mankind.  —  A.  E.  Dunning. 

Let  us  not  forget  the  religious  character  of  our  origin.  Our  fathers  were 
brought  hither  by  their  high  veneration  for  the  Christian  religion.  They 
journeyed  in  its  light  and  laoored  in  its  hope.  They  sought  to  incorporate  its 
principles  with  the  elements  of  their  society,  and  to  diffuse  its  influence 
through  all  their  institutions,  civil,  political,  and  literary.  Let  us  cherish 
these  sentiments,  and  extend  their  influence  still  more  widely. 

Daniel  Webster. 

They  established  what  they  planned.  Their  feeble  plantation  became 
the  birthplace  of  religious  liberty,  the  cradle  of  a  free  Commonwealth.  To 
them  a  mighty  nation  owes  its  debt.  Nay,  they  made  the  civilized  world 
their  debtor.  In  the  varied  tapestry  which  pictures  our  national  life,  the 
richest  spots  are  those  where  gleam  the  golden  threads  of  conscience,  cour- 
age, and  faith,  set  in  the  web  of  that  little  band.  May  God  in  His  great  mercy 
grant  that  the  moral  impulse  which  founded  this  nation  may  never  cease  to 
control  its  destiny.  —  Roger  Wolcott. 

Were  I  to  choose  the  one  spot  above  all  others  wherein  to  teach  my  son 
the  lessons  of  religious  truth  and  national  patriotism,  I  should  bring  him  to 
Plymouth  Rock.  —  Henry  W.  Grady. 

Their  faithful  sons  and  daughters  breathe 
New  songs  to  swell  their  deathless  fame, 

And  shall  to  latest  heirs  bequeath 
Due  honor  to  the  Pilgrim  name. 

George  M.  Herrick. 


XXII 
LESSONS    TAUGHT    BY   THE    PILGRIMS 

THE  story  has  been  told.  The  high  resolve,  the  brave 
endeavor,  the  trying  experience,  the  hardships  and 
perils,  the  defeats  and  final  triumphs  of  the  Pilgrims 
have  been  spread  before  us.  It  remains  to  consider  whether 
there  are  any  lessons  applicable  to  those  of  us  who  live  in 
this  day  and  generation,  and  occupy  the  land  they  subdued, 
to  be  learned  from  a  study  of  the  remarkable  achievements 
of  this  little  band  of  heroic  souls.  Were  they  loyal  to  ideals 
and  under  the  control  of  motives  which  may  well  continue  to 
be  the  ideals  and  motives  of  their  successors  in  training 
manhood  and  managing  public  affairs?  We  are  reaping 
precious  fruits  from  the  seed  sown  by  these  diligent  and 
wise  Fathers;  we  have  entered  into  the  sacred  inheritance 
of  their  foresight,  prayers,  toils,  and  sacrifices ;  and,  mov- 
ing forward  on  the  lines  which  they  opened,  we  have  be- 
come a  great  nation.  Over  and  above  this  are  there  any 
guiding  ideas  to  be  discovered,  any  underlying  truths  or 
maxims  of  permanent  value  disclosed,  in  what  the  Ply- 
mouth colonists  said  and  did,  which  may  be  wrought  into 
our  twentieth  century  systems,  and  made  ruling  factors  in 
the  policies  of  the  men  who  now  hold  the  center  of  the  stage, 
and  shape  public  opinion,  and  give  direction  to  movements 
in  church  and  state? 

A  simple  statement  of  what  they  believed,  of  the  theories 
on  which  they  proceeded  in  doing  their  work,  of  the  aims, 
private  and  public,  which  they  cherished,  and  of  the  spirit 
which  they  illustrated,  will  show  us  with  what  tremendous 
emphasis  this  question  is  to  be  answered  in  the  affirmative. 
Indeed,  it  may  be  confidently  asserted  that  the  leading  views 
which  these  men  accepted  for  the  government  of  their  in* 


440  THE    PILGRIMS 

because  of  the  love  of  the  Father.  His  being  here  set  forth 
this  love  in  the  most  positive  and  impressive  way.  Besides 
showing  it  by  taking  his  place  in  the  ranks  of  our  human- 
ity, he  declared  it  in  every  persuasive  form  of  speech  and 
ministry  and  sacrifice.  In  his  presence  and  in  his  various 
services  he  was  an  unimpeachable  testimony  to  the  love  of 
God  for  the  world.  It  is  a  loss  to  anybody  not  to  have  the 
conception  of  the  love  of  God  which  expresses  itself  in 
fatherhood.  Robinson,  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  career 
of  the  Pilgrims,  did  not  fail  in  this  particular;  nor  did 
Brewster  and  Bradford  and  their  associates  and  successors 
in  the  later  stages.  The  word  was  not  so  often  on  their 
tongues ;  but  the  idea  which  underlies  fatherhood  was  in 
their  minds,  and  the  sense  of  fatherhood  was  in  their 
hearts. 

But  while  this  is  true,  the  thinkers  in  this  remarkable 
group  of  men  could  not  escape  the  conclusion  that  God  is 
not  only  a  God  of  love,  but  a  God  of  righteous- 
Empha-  ness.     Indeed,  they  could  not  understand  how 

sized  the  ne  COuld  be  a  God  of  love  without  being  a  God 
righteous-  0f  righteousness.  In  their  view  love  is  not 
ness  of  iove  unless  it  is  articulated  and  veined  through 

God  and  through  with  righteousness.    "  Holy,  holy, 

holy,  is  the  Lord  of  hosts  "  is  an  ascription 
to  the  Almighty  in  which  they  heartily  joined.  Thinking  in 
this  way,  it  was  inconceivable  to  them  that  God  is  or  can  be 
blind  to  moral  distinctions  and  fail  to  discriminate  between 
right  and  wrong,  truth  and  falsehood,  purity  and  impurity, 
justice  and  injustice.  They  recognized  the  duty  of  loving 
God  with  all  the  heart  and  soul  and  mind,  and  their  neigh- 
bors as  themselves;  but  they  likewise  considered  it  to  be 
duty  to  obey  God.  They  never  permitted  the  fact  of  the 
holiness  of  God  to  drop  out  of  their  schedule  of  the  divine 
attributes.  They  discovered  holiness  in  the  forefront  of 
the  character  of  God ;  they  saw  holiness  informing  the  law 
of  God ;  they  found  holiness  emphasized  on  every  page  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  New;  they  felt  the  force  of 
holiness  in  the  conduct  of  life  and  in  the  moral  government 
of  the  world ;  and  they  could  not  get  away  from  the  infer- 
ence and  the  conviction  that  holiness  is  of  vast  importance 


THE    PILGRIMS  441 

in  the  estimation  of  him  who  has  called  the  race  into  being 
and  seeks  to  have  all  men  become  partakers  of  the  divine 
nature. 

After  all,  in  the  emphasis  which  they  put  upon  righteous- 
ness in  their  conception  of  the  character  of  God,  were  not 

these  Pilgrims  in  exact  line  with  our  Lord 
In  line  {n  hjs  great  intercessory  prayer?     He  began 

with  onr  by  saying  "  Father."  How  tender  and  sweet 
I'ord  the  word  must  have  sounded  as  it  fell  on  the 

ears  of  the  disciples  from  the  lips  of  Jesus! 
He  said  "  O  Father."  He  did  not  stop,  however,  with  this 
simple  form  of  address;  but  went  on  to  characterize  the 
fatherhood.  What  were  the  qualifying  words  which  he 
applied?  They  were  these  two  very  significant  ones  — 
"  holy  "  and  "  righteous."  The  forms  he  used  were  "  holy 
Father  "  and  "  righteous  Father."  To  thoughtful  minds 
it  cannot  be  a  matter  of  small  import  that  our  Lord,  in 
the  situation  in  which  he  then  was,  and  in  the  service  in 
which  he  was  then  engaged,  should  have  employed  just 
these  adjectives.  One  can  think  of  other  descriptive  terms 
which  might  have  been  used,  and  which  would  seem  to  he 
in  line  with  the  ordinary  idea  of  fatherhood;  but  Jesus 
with  his  divine  insight  turned  from  all  these  and  said  — 
"  holy  Father,"  "  righteous  Father." 

It  is  not  possible  to  insist  too  strenuously  on  the  love  of 
God ;  but  it  is  possible  to  misconceive  what  the  love  of  God  is, 
and  to  degrade  it  into  a  vapory  sentimentalism.  The 
fatherhood  of  God  is  a  truth  precious  and  sacred  beyond 
expression;  but  it  will  not  do  to  eliminate  righteousness 
from  the  conception  of  it.  It  is  because  the  fatherhood 
which  is  brought  to  our  knowledge  in  the  New  Testament  is 
a  righteous  fatherhood  that  it  is  ideal  and  evermore  worthy 
of  confidence.  The  God  in  whom  the  Pilgrims  believed  had 
in  him  robust  moral  qualities.  Faith  in  such  a  God  put 
iron  into  their  blood,  strength  into  their  muscles,  and  deter- 
mination into  their  wills.  They  loved ;  but  they  preferred 
to  show  their  love,  not  so  much  in  ardent  expressions  of  af- 
fection as  in  keeping  the  commandments. 


442  THE    PILGRIMS 


n 

The  religion  of  the  Pilgrims,  as  might  be  inferred  from 
the  attitude  of  recipiency  and  obedience  which  they  took 
towards  God,  was  of  the  positive,  earnest,  and 
A  positive  enduring  type.  The  full  enjoyment  of  religion 
and  ear-  was  one  0f  the  chief  motives  which  led  them 
nest  re-  from  England  to  Holland,  and  from  Holland 
li&ion  to  America.    They  never  sought  to  revise  their 

estimate  of  the  surpassing  importance  of  things 
spiritual  over  things  material.  Godliness  was  always  more 
to  them  than  gain.  From  beginning  to  end  they  made  the 
kingdom  of  God  the  first  object  of  their  seeking.  Whatever 
means  were  available  for  developing  and  strengthening 
their  religious  life  they  used.  They  had  frequent  occasion 
to  be  solicitous ;  but  the  anxiety  which  burdened  them  most 
heavily  was  anxiety  lest  they  fall  short  on  the  Godward 
side  and  fail  to  live  up  to  the  standard  of  their  convictions. 
They  believed,  and  therefore  they  had  power.  It  was  unto 
them  according  to  their  faith. 

Some  characteristics  of  their  religion,  and  some  of  the 
methods  by  which  they  fostered  and  developed  spiritual 
life,  are  evident  from  what  has  gone  before,  and  call  for 
only  brief  mention. 

The  Pilgrims  were  men  of  prayer.  Closet  devotions  and 
family  devotions,  as  well  as  public  devotions,  had  a  place  in 
the  economy  of  their  lives.  Prayer  did  not  seem 
Men  of  to  them  a  meaningless  act,  nor  a  fruitless  act, 

prayer  nor  an  ac£  unbecoming  in  a  rational  creature. 

They  had  no  idea  that  the  Maker  of  the  uni- 
verse and  the  Author  of  our  being  is  so  hedged  in  by  his  own 
laws  that  he  cannot  hear  the  cries  of  his  earthly  children 
and  come  to  their  relief ;  or  that  what  is  fondly  supposed  to 
be  communion  with  God  is  only  a  kind  of  intellectual  gym- 
nastic which  ends  in  its  own  motions ;  or  that  the  Master 
was  under  the  spell  of  a  fascinating  illusion  when  he  sup- 
posed he  was  holding  intercourse  with  the  Father,  or  mocked 
the  disciples  when  he  instructed  them  to  ask  in  the  assur- 
ance that  they  were  to  receive,  and  to  say  "  Thy  Kingdom 


THE    PILGRIMS  443 

Come."  When  in  sore  straits,  or  when  grave  questions  were 
up  for  adjustment,  these  men  never  failed  to  come  together 
and  to  unite  in  earnest  supplication  that  they  might  be  di- 
rected from  on  high.  Nor  was  any  day  so  crowded,  nor  any 
work  which  they  had  in  hand  so  pressing,  that  they  did  not 
take  time  to  open  their  hearts  to  God  and  seek  his  guidance 
and  strength.  "  After  prayer  "  is  a  phrase  which  recurs 
and  flashes  like  a  diamond  on  the  pages  of  their  narratives. 
The  Pilgrims  were  strict  in  their  observance  of  the  Sab- 
bath. They  counted  the  hours  of  the  first  day  of  the  week 
sacred.  As  they  allowed  no  outward  demand  or 
Sabbath  interest  to  interfere  with  their  duty  and  privi- 

observers  \ege  0f  prayer,  so  they  never  indulged  them- 
selves in  any  desecration  of  the  time  set  apart 
for  rest  and  worship.  "  Remember,"  "  keep  holy,"  were 
written  not  only  in  the  Book,  but  on  the  tablets  of  their 
hearts.  Recall  the  Sunday  spent  on  Clark's  Island.  Was 
there  ever  a  more  marked  instance  of  conscientious  observ- 
ance of  holy  time? 

To  the  Pilgrims  the  Church  was  a  divine  institution. 
God  and  not  men  had  originated  it  and  defined  its  functions. 
They  cherished  it  as  the  apple  of  the  eye. 
The  church  Tney  watered  it  with  their  tears.  They  kept  it 
a  divine  alive  by  their  sacrifices.  They  warmed  it  into 
institution  efficiency  by  their  devotions.  They  sought 
in  every  way  to  guard  its  honor.  As  soon 
would  they  have  thought  of  establishing  a  colony  with- 
out soil  to  till,  or  air  to  breathe,  as  of  attempting  to 
found  and  build  up  a  happy  and  successful  community 
without  a  church.  The  fellowship  of  believers  in  the  wor- 
ship of  God  was  to  them  an  essential  of  right  living. 

The  Pilgrims  had  faith  in  the  providential  guidance  of 
God,  and  in  the  divine  purpose  to  turn  all  events  to  the 
good  of  his  people.  Fortunate  was  it  for  them 
Faith  in  th^  their  minds  took  this  direction  and  that 
providen-  tn€V  were  fed  to  entertain  these  views.  For  the 
tial  guid-  share  they  had  to  accept  of  adversity  and  sor- 
ance  TOW  was  Very  large.    They  knew  what  it  was  to 

be  turned  and  overturned  by  malignant  foes; 
but  instead  of  their  faith  being  weakened  it  was  strength- 


444  THE    PILGRIMS 

ened  by  what  they  had  to  endure.  They  were  not  soured 
but  softened  by  afflictions.  Fires  did  not  consume,  but 
refined  them.  In  the  darkest  of  their  midnights  they  sang. 
Their  sore  distresses,  their  temptations  and  thwartings  of 
purpose,  were  met  in  a  way  to  set  them  forward  in  patience 
and  holiness.  Their  knowledge  of  things  divine  was  wider, 
their  devotion  was  more  earnest,  there  was  more  vigor  and 
symmetry  in  their  character,  because  of  what  they  suffered. 
Suffering,  like  the  law,  was  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  them  to 
Christ. 

The  Pilgrims  were  lovers  of  the  Book.     To  them  the 
Bible  was  a  divinely  inspired  volume.     They  read  it ;   they 

pondered  over  it;  they  discussed  its  teachings 
Lovers  of  one  with  another ;  they  applied  its  precepts  to 
the  Book        their  daily  lives;    they  put  cheer  into  their 

hearts  and  invigorated  their  courage  with 
its  promises ;  and  they  sought  in  all  things  to  be  gov- 
erned by  its  directions.  In  a  very  literal  sense  the  Scrip- 
tures were  a  lamp  unto  their  feet  and  a  light  unto  their 
paths.  With  the  truths  which  they  found  in  them  they 
fed  their  souls  into  health  and  robustness.  At  the  foun- 
tain which  they  opened  to  them  they  quenched  their  thirst, 
and  knew  that  they  had  been  drinking  the  waters  of 
life.  With  them  "  Thus-saith-the-Lord  "  was  an  end  of 
controversy. 

Some  of  the  views  of  the  Scriptures  held  by  the  Pilgrims 
—  their   views,   for  intance,   of  the  method   and  measure 

of  inspiration,  of  the  way  in  which  some  of  the 
Some  books  were  constructed,  the  inerrancy  of  some  of 

views  not  the  statements  made,  and  the  right  interpreta- 
tenable  tion  and  application  of  some  of  the  ceremonial 

teachings  of  the  Old  Testament  —  would  hardly 
stand  the  test  of  a  ripened  and  devout  scholarship.  They 
misunderstood  some  passages,  they  misapplied  some  pas- 
sages, just  as  others  through  the  centuries  have  done,  and 
just  as  others  are  still  doing;  but  the  interpretations 
in  which  they  erred,  and  the  applications  in  which  they 
missed  the  mark,  were  of  small  consequence  in  comparison 
with  those  in  which  to  their  own  good,  the  good  of  the 
world  and  the  glory  of  God  they  succeeded.    No  argument 


THE    PILGRIMS  445 

of  doubters  and  no  skill  of  critics  could  have  persuaded 
these  men  that  the  Bible  is  not  a  self-authenticating  revela- 
tion of  the  will  of  God  to  mankind.  To  them  the  reality 
and  genuineness  of  its  inspiration  were  made  evident  in  the 
inspiration  which  an  earnest  and  honest  reading  of  it 
brought  to  their  own  souls. 

If  they  turned  to  the  Old  Testament  for  instruction  and 
encouragement  somewhat  more  frequently  than  average 
believers  in  these  modern  times  are  wont  to  do, 
Old  Testa-  ft  was  only  what  might  have  been  expected, 
ment  much  Oppressed  and  humiliated,  driven  from  their 
uae^  homes  and  spoiled  of  their  earthly  goods,  guilty 

of  no  crime  but  the  crime  of  believing  in  Jesus 
Christ,  and  trying  in  his  name  to  live  simple,  pure  and 
fruitful  lives,  and  forced  to  worship,  if  they  had  any  wor- 
ship in  common,  in  secluded  chambers,  or  in  the  dens  and 
caves  of  the  earth,  they  went  back  instinctively  to  those  old 
days  of  storm  and  stress  when  the  times  were  so  sadly  out  of 
joint,  and  good  men  were  forced  to  suffer  every  kind  of 
indignity  and  wrong.  Here  they  found  parallels  to  their 
own  harsh  treatment.  Here  they  discovered  how  men,  who 
trusted  in  God,  would  carry  themselves  in  emergencies  when 
corruption  was  running  riot  in  society,  and  the  authorities 
in  church  and  state  were  in  league  with  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness, and  foes,  full  of  deceit  and  cruelty  and  armed  to  the 
teeth,  confronted  them  on  every  side.  Here,  likewise,  they 
gathered  comfort  and  reinforcement  of  purpose  in  the  as- 
suring words  of  stout  and  undaunted  prophets.  Here  the 
uplifting  songs  of  psalmists,  whose  clear  voices  of  trust  and 
unfaltering  notes  of  hope,  ringing  out  over  all  the  tumult 
of  the  hour,  charmed  them  into  fresh  confidence  in  God. 

It  is  one  of  the  encouraging  signs  of  the  times  that  both 
for  instruction  in  righteousness  and  for  devotional  aid, 
people  are  turning  with  a  renewed  interest  to  the  Old 
Testament.  It  will  be  a  long  time  hence  when  the  world 
has  nothing  more  to  learn  from  the  story  of  Moses  and 
Isaiah,  and  can  no  longer  sit  with  profit  at  the  feet  of 
Elijah  and  Daniel,  and  has  no  further  use  for  the  Twenty- 
Third  Psalm. 

In  addition  to  these  more  conventional,  but  exceedingly 


446  THE    PILGRIMS 

fruitful  ways  of  fostering  their  religious  life,  the  Pilgrims 
kept  an  open  mind.    They  walked  with  their  faces  towards 

the  light,  and  in  constant  expectation  that 
Kept  an  through  the  ministry  of  the  Spirit,  the  un- 

open  mind      folding  of  Providence,  and  the  faithful  study 

of  the  Word,  clearer  views  of  truth,  and  a 
better  apprehension  of  the  bearings  of  truth  on  life,  would 
be  granted  to  them. 

It  has  been  a  question  in  debate  whether  Robinson  in  his 
farewell  words  to  the  departing  Pilgrims  —  recalled  and 

committed  to  paper  by  Winslow  twenty-five 
What  years  or  more  after  they  were  spoken  —  to  the 

Robinson        effect  that  further  light  might  be  expected  to 
meant  break  forth  from  the  Scriptures,  had  reference 

to  church  government  or  to  spiritual  truth. 
Dismissing  all  prejudice  and  reading  the  whole  passage  as 
it  stands,  it  seems  difficult  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that 
something  more  vital  than  mere  polity  must  have  been  in 
the  mind  of  the  author.  At  all  events,  this  was  the  accus- 
tomed attitude  of  the  man  and  the  mental  habit  which  he 
encouraged  in  his  followers. 

He  and  his  people  kept  the  inlets  of  their  souls  open 
to  all  fresh  revealings  of  the  will  of  God.    They  held  fast  to 

what  truth  they  had;  but  if  there  was  more  to 
Hospitable  De  unfolded  they  stood  ready  to  give  it  welcome, 
to  more  Their  God  was  a  living  God.  He  was  a  very 
light  present  help.     He  had  secrets,  they  were  sure, 

to  whisper  to  those  who  trusted  in  him  and 
tried  to  walk  in  his  ways.  Their  eager  searchings  for  the 
path  of  duty,  their  wide  inquiries  here  and  there  of  persons 
who  might  be  supposed  to  know,  when  perplexing  questions 
were  up  for  settlement,  were  sometimes  pathetic.  For  more 
light  they  always  had  a  ready  hospitality. 

Indeed,  one  of  the  most  impressive  facts  brought  out  in  a 
study  of  the  spiritual  side  of  the  Pilgrims  is  the  intimacy 

they  seemed  to  have  with  God,  and  the  way  in 
Ensphered  which  their  lives  were  ensphered  in  him.  To 
in  God  them  the  divine  imminence  was  a  reality.    God 

was  not  afar ;  he  was  near.  He  had  an  ear  to 
hear,  and  they  could  speak  to  him.     In  the  thought  of 


l'HE  PILGRIM   MONUMENT,  PLYMOUTH 


THE    PILGRIMS  447 

Bradford,  Brewster,  and  the  rest  of  them,  God  was  just  as 
close  to  their  need  as  he  had  been  to  Abraham  and  Moses, 
to  David  and  Isaiah,  or  to  John  and  Paul  and  other  early 
disciples. 

In  view  of  the  direct  access  which  they  felt  that  they 
had  to  God  in  this  conception  of  his  nearness,  it  has  some- 
times been  said  that  the  Pilgrims  were  mystics. 
Not  mys-      Were  the  charge  true  it  would  be  nothing  to 
tics  their  discredit.     For  there  is  a  vital  truth  in 

mysticism  —  only  this  vital  truth  was  in  Chris- 
tianity before  it  was  in  mysticism,  and  we  do  not  have  to 
go  to  mysticism  to  find  it.  But  in  the  technical  sense  of 
the  term  the  Pilgrims  were  not  mystics.  They  were  mys- 
tics only  to  the  degree  in  which  all  genuine  Christians  are 
mystics.  They  did  not  rely  on  feeling.  They  did  not  fall 
back  on  the  claim  of  a  supernatural  sense.  Waiting  quietly 
in  the  temper  of  a  serene  openmindedness,  and  expecting 
in  this  way  to  receive  all  the  light  which  they  needed,  was 
foreign  to  their  habit. 

They  did  wait.     They  were  openminded.     The  windows 
of  their  souls  were  flung  wide  to  the  sunrisings ;   and  while, 
it  may  be,  they  saw  no  flaming  visions,  yet  in 
Had  their      ^ne  radiance  of  the  instreaming  light  they  saw 
own  ex-  things  with  their  own  eyes.     They  had  attent 

perience  ears,  and  notes  of  the  old,  but  ever  new  song 

of  the  morning  stars  were  caught  by  them  and 
turned  into  music  for  the  day's  march.  They  had  experi- 
ences in  the  Mount  to  which  their  bronzed  but  shining  faces 
bore  testimony.  They  knew  Christ  because  they  believed 
him,  and  they  believed  him  with  an  increasing  confidence 
and  tenacity  because  they  knew  him.  The  Spirit  witnessed 
with  their  spirits ;  and  because  of  his  indwelling  they  were 
able  to  bear  personal  witness  to  the  truth  Their  contact 
with  the  Father  in  all  the  leading  ways  in  which  he  comes 
into  manifestation  to  his  children  was  direct.  Things 
divine  were  real  to  their  apprehension.  They  would  not 
have  made  the  statement  with  the  same  assurance ;  but "  We 
know  "  would  have  had  just  as  much  pertinency  on  the  lips 
of  these  men  as  on  the  lips  of  the  great  apostle.  They  did 
not  know  so  much;    but  what  they  did  know  they  knew 


448  THE    PILGRIMS 

with  an  equal  certainty.  The  gates  of  their  souls  turned 
easily  on  their  hinges ;  and  it  took  but  a  touch  of  the 
unseen  Hand  to  swing  them  open  and  secure  admission 
for  thoughts  from  on  high.  In  the  disclosures  of  still 
hours,  in  earnest  meditation,  and  through  intercourse  with 
God  and  with  one  another,  they  were  made  rich  in  heavenly 
lore. 

Still  the  Pilgrims  were  not  mystics.  They  used  all  the 
faculties  they  possessed  in  quest  of  the  truth.  Reason  and 
feeling,  faith  and  patience,  activity  and  serene  passiveness 
were  all  brought  into  requisition  to  secure  a  better  under- 
standing of  the  character  and  will  of  God.  They  searched 
the  Scriptures.  They  meditated  and  prayed.  They  studied 
providences  and  compared  opinions.  Thejr  were  eager 
learners  in  the  school  of  adversity.  They  sifted  theories 
and  subjected  them  to  the  test  of  their  every-day  and  well- 
seasoned  sagacity.  If,  in  the  university  sense,  these  men 
were  not  scholars,  they  were  yet  sturdy  thinkers ;  and  they 
had  no  idea  that  they  were  to  be  floated  away  on  dream- 
clouds  into  the  realm  of  truth.  Their  faith  was  ear-marked 
by  hard  work  and  a  determination  to  know  God,  and  they 
spared  no  efforts  to  understand  how  one  may  come  into 
right  relations  with  God. 

It  is  just  as  wide  of  the  mark  to  say  that  the  Pilgrims,  in 
virtue  of  the  immediacy  of  their  experience  of  God,  and  of 
their  first  hand  knowledge  of  the  truths  which 
Not  ra-  j|e  ^  the  basis  of  Christian  character  and  give 

tionalists  form  and  force  to  Christian  life,  went  behind 
the  Bible  in  any  such  way  as  is  commonly 
understood  or  implied  when  this  kind  of  language  is  used. 
To  the  extent  and  in  the  manner  already  described  they 
went  behind  the  Bible,  but  not  otherwise. 

They  did  not  regard  the  Bible  with  an  idolatrous  devo- 
tion, but  on  its  pages  they  saw  the  revelation  of  the  divine 
will,  and  in  its  directions  they  caught  the  accents  of  the 
divine  voice.  The  Bible  was  the  road,  and  not  the  end  of  the 
journey.  It  was  the  lamp  whose  clear  shining  lighted  them 
on  the  way.  It  was  the  hand  that  led  them.  It  was  their 
chief  help  to  immediacy  of  contact  with  the  Father,  and 
their  unerring  guide  in  finding  Christ  and  coming  under 


THE    PILGRIMS  449 

the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  no  other  way  did  they  go 
behind  the  Bible.  On  the  contrary  they  cherished  and 
exalted  the  Bible. 

What  the  Pilgrims  wanted  was  a  working  knowledge 
of  the  deep  things  of  God.     This  is  what  they  secured. 

They  came  into  the  secret  of  the  hidden  life. 
Sought  They  knew  God  through  the  inbreathing  of 

working  his  vitalizing  truth.  They  knew  him  in  the 
knowledge  realized  purpose  of  his  chastenings.  They 
of  God  knew  him  in  the  consciousness  of  adoption  into 

sonship.  They  knew  him  in  the  moral  energy 
he  is  sure  to  impart  when  he  wishes  to  prepare  men  for 
some  impressive  testimony  to  the  truth,  or  some  signal  ser- 
vice to  mankind.  Their  knowledge  was  a  knowledge  which 
comes  from  a  thought  to  thought,  heart  to  heart,  life  to  life 
relationship  with  God.  Dull  eyes  see  not,  and  dull  ears  hear 
not ;  but  these  colonists  for  conscience*  sake  both  saw  and 
heard.  Their  religion  was  not  of  the  hearsay  order.  They 
looked  straight  into  the  face  of  the  Master.  They  caught 
the  whispers  of  his  voice.  They  had  a  first  hand  and  not 
a  second  hand  experience.  They  could  take  oath  of  their 
own  knowledge. 

So  whatever  may  be  said  about  their  views,  and  whatever 
differences  of  opinion  there  may  be  concerning  the  wisdom 

of  the  methods  by  which  they  reached  their 
Had  a  results,   and  however  unsatisfactory  much  of 

vital  and  their  theology  and  exegesis  may  seem  to  up-to- 
vitalizing  ^ate  scholarship,  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  the 
religion         Pilgrims  had  a  religion  which  was  at  once  vital 

and  vitalizing.  It  was  as  genuine  as  the  stars. 
It  was  as  deep  as  life.  It  was  as  real  as  the  soul.  It  was  a 
religion  which  made  weak  men  strong,  and  transformed 
simple  men  into  heroes  whose  place  in  the  temple  of  fame 
is  forevermore  secure.  The  Pilgrims,  as  has  been  intimated, 
may  have  been  wrong  in  some  of  the  details  of  their  belief, 
and  oversevere  in  some  of  their  practises.  No  doubt  they 
were.  They  may  have  emphasized  some  doctrines  at  the 
expense  of  proportion  and  the  symmetry  of  the  truth  re- 
vealed to  us  in  the  Word.  No  doubt  they  did.  But  after 
all  admissions  are  made,  it  is  still  a  fact  that  their  religion 

29 


450  THE   PILGRIMS 

was  characterized  by  an  earnestness  and  sincerity,  by  a 
sense  and  token  of  reality,  by  a  grip  on  conscience  and 
conduct,  and  an  all-aroundness  of  application  which  dis- 
tinguishes it  sharply  from  the  current  conceptions  and 
illustrations  of  religion  in  their  day  and  gives  to  it  a  high  in- 
spirational and  exemplary  value.  Their  religion  was  of  the 
sort  which  enabled  them  to  endure  hardship,  to  work  right- 
eousness, and  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  mighty  nation. 
Nothing  was  so  dear  to  them  as  their  religion.  Nothing  in 
their  bearing  so  struck  those  who  met  them  and  took  note 
of  their  spirit  and  conduct  as  the  quiet,  sustaining  and 
compelling  force  of  their  religion.  They  never  had  to  be 
cross-questioned  to  enable  one  to  find  out  that  they  were 
disciples  of  the  Master. 


ni 

The  Pilgrims  laid  great  stress  on  righteous  character. 
So  much  has  been  implied,  and,  in  one  form  and  another, 
stated  in  what  has  gone  before.     But  it  is  a 
Great  fac^  which  stands  out  by  itself;  and  it  is  so 

stress  on       marked  and  suggestive  that  it  may  well  receive 
righteous       distinct  recognition. 

character  Had  the  Pilgrims  been  asked  to  put  into 

definite  language  what  they  conceived  to  be  the 
highest  object  of  human  endeavor  and  the  true  aim  of  life, 
they  would  have  anticipated  the  shorter  catechism,  and,  in 
slightly  altered  phrase,  said  that  it  is  to  know  and  do  the 
will  of  God.  Had  they  been  pressed  still  further  and  re- 
quested to  reduce  to  a  concrete  setting  their  conception  of 
the  practical  statement  or  outcome  of  knowing  and  doing 
the  will  of  God,  their  quick  answer  would  have  been  — 
character. 

They  sought  to  translate  their  faith  and  their  sense 
of  duty  into  character.  They  aimed  to  be  intelligently  and 
consistently  moral.  Clean  living,  uprightness,  truthfulness, 
integrity  reaching  from  heart's  core  to  finger-tip,  loyalty  to 
principle,  conscience  at  the  front  dominating  conduct,  were 
counted  by  them  essential  to  any  true  idea,  or  any  true  reali- 


THE    PILGRIMS  451 

zation,  of  manhood.  No  achievement  was  of  so  much  con- 
sequence in  their  estimation  as  character.  No  losses  seemed 
so  great  to  them  as  losses  in  moral  standing.  Nothing 
humiliated  and  burdened  them  like  lapses  from  virtue. 
They  were  great  sticklers  for  the  homely  old  virtues  of 
honesty,  fair  dealing,  sincerity,  and  manly  decency.  They 
would  not  equivocate.  They  would  not  dissemble.  They 
would  not  misrepresent.  No  lies  were  permitted  to  blister 
their  tongues.  Cheating  and  defrauding  were  not  among 
their  methods  of  accumulation.  They  hatched  no  cunning 
schemes  of  money-making  whereby  they  might  empty  other 
pockets  and  fill  their  own.  Their  hands  were  never  soiled 
with  ill-gotten  gains.  They  were  often  the  victims  of  "  high 
finance,"  and  they  suffered  much  from  extortion ;  but  they 
never  retaliated  in  kind.  They  evaded  no  obligations.  The 
repudiation  of  a  debt  never  marred  their  records.  There 
were  few  crooked  dealings  and  unjust  transactions  to  burden 
their  memories  and  irritate  their  consciences.  If  in  a  couple 
of  instances  they  went  astray  —  once  in  the  early  years, 
and  again  when  the  colony  had  passed  into  the  keeping  of 
the  second  generation  —  in  their  dealings  with  the  Indians, 
and  did  what  they  ought  not  to  have  done,  the  only  thing  to 
be  said  is,  that,  in  the  first  case,  they  made  ample  and  satis- 
factory amends  for  the  wrong  done,  while  in  the  other  the 
mistake,  when  made,  was  beyond  repair  and  evermore  to  be 
regretted. 

"  Not  faultless  were  they,  else  were  they  not  men ; 
Yet  less  their  own  the  faults  than  of  their  time." 

But  their  ideals  were  pure  hearts  and  clean  hands.  Their 
yea  was  yea  and  their  nay  was  nay.  They  knew  how  to 
endure  bad  treatment  and  injustice ;  but  they  were  children 
in  malice,  and  they  had  no  disposition  to  secure  revenge  and 
inflict  pain. 

There  were  individual  exceptions  to  the  average  high 
standing  of  the  Pilgrims  in  their  moral  conduct.  Not  all 
of  them  were  equally  impatient  of  impurity,  iniquity,  and 
injustice.  The  story  of  a  couple  of  the  company  is  exceed- 
ingly sad  and  distressing. 


452  THE    PILGRIMS 

One  of  the  leaders  became  recreant  to  the  trust  which 
was  reposed  in  him  by  his  associates.    He  became  connected 

with  these  people  at  Leyden.  At  the  outset  and 
A  dishon-  for  a  \ong  time  he  was  honored  and  efficient, 
est  and  por  the  first  three  years  in  which  Bradford 

dishonored     ^j  the  office  of  governor,  he  was  the  chief 
leader  executive's  sole  assistant.     Important  business 

interests  were  intrusted  to  him;  and  he  was 
frequently  sent  abroad  to  make  loans,  adjust  accounts,  and 
purchase  goods.  He  was  one  of  the  men  who  assumed  re- 
sponsibility for  the  debt  incurred  when  the  colonists  bought 
out  the  Adventurers  in  1627.  But  avarice  became  his 
master  passion  and  ruined  him.  He  fell  through  love  of 
gain.  Two  things,  however,  are  to  be  said  about  this  man. 
He  was  the  only  one  of  the  prominent  members  who  ever 
brought  the  blush  of  shame  to  the  colony  by  a  betrayal 
of  confidence  and  flagrant  dishonesty.  Having  gone  wrong, 
he  soon  found  the  atmosphere  of  the  Pilgrim  settlement 
uncongenial.  He  left  the  place  and  "  died  insolvent  in 
reputation  and  estate." 

After  having  lived  ten  years  on  these  shores,  another 
member  of  the  colony  was  tried,  convicted,  and  solemnly 

executed  for  murder.  He  came  across  in  the 
Hung  for  Mayflower.  His  name  is  in  the  list  of  the  im- 
murder  mortal   forty-one   who   signed  the   Mayflower 

Compact.  He  shared  in  the  division  of  the 
Pilgrim  properties.  The  Pilgrims  must  ever  bear  a  meas- 
ure of  the  odium  which  attaches  to  his  name.  But  while 
he  was  a  Pilgrim  in  this  way,  he  was  yet  not  a  Pilgrim. 
Recall  what  Bradford  says  of  him :  "  He  and  some  of  his 
kind  had  been  often  punished  for  miscarriages,  being  one  of 
the  profanest  families  amongst  them.  They  came  from 
London,  and  I  know  not  by  what  friends  shuffled  into  their 
Company."  There  is  no  evidence  that  he  had  ever  had  the 
least  training  in  Pilgrim  ideas,  or  had  ever  shown  the  least 
sympathy  with  Pilgrim  views.  The  Pilgrim  spirit  was 
foreign  to  his  nature  and  habit.  He  was  among  them,  no 
doubt,  for  the  reason  that  some  Adventurer,  who  was  an 
Adventurer  for  revenue  only,  had  thrust  him  into  the  com- 
pany, either  to  get  rid  of  him,  or  because  he  thought 


THE    PILGRIMS  453 

another  pair  of  stout  hands  would  increase  the  chances  of 
better  returns  for  the  money  invested  in  the  enterprise. 
He  was  a  bad  man  at  the  start,  and  he  was  a  bad  man  all 
through.  He  well  deserved  his  fate.  But  in  no  particular, 
save  in  name  and  accidental  association,  was  he  ever  a  Pil- 
grim.   He  lived  and  died  "  a  knave." 

There  were  times  when  social  vices  prevailed  to  some  ex- 
tent. In  his  "History"  Bradford  opens  the  record  of  events 
for  1642  with  a  bitter  wail.  The  colony  had 
Social  then  Deen  {n  existence  more  than  two  decades; 

vices  an(j  our  author  did  not  attempt  to  disguise  the 

chagrin  and  pain  he  felt  over  the  situation. 
"  Marvelous  it  may  be  to  see  and  consider  how  some  kind 
of  wickedness  did  grow  and  break  out  here."  He  specified 
"drunkenness  and  uncleanness,"  and  some  things  "fearful  to 
name."  It  is  a  dark  picture  as  the  colors  are  laid  on  by  the 
brush  of  this  white-souled  painter.  Were  one  to  read  just 
so  much  and  no  more  of  what  the  chapter  contains,  he  might 
conclude  that  the  state  of  affairs  was  something  dreadful, 
if  not  utterly  hopeless.  One  would  infer  that  some  people, 
reading  this  book,  have  stopped  at  this  paragraph. 

Naturally  Bradford  was  solicitous  to  ascertain  the  causes 
of  what  seemed  to  him  an  apalling  outbreak  of  immorality. 
He  found  them  in  "  our  corrupt  nature,"  in  the 
Causes  of  «  Spjte  "  of  the  devil  against  the  churches,  in 
this  out-  tne  ]ong  restraint  under  which  "  wickedness  " 
break  had    been   "  more    nearly    looked   unto "    and 

"  stopped  by  strict  laws,"  and  which  made  it  all 
the  more  violent  and  reckless  when  it  did  break  out,  and 
in  the  fact  that  sins  were  there  "  more  discovered  and  seen  " 
than  in  other  places. 

This  latter  explanation  of  a  condition  of  things  which 
brought  so  much  sadness  to  the  Pilgrim  governor  is  worth 
considering.  Bradford  himself  seems  to  have  been  a  bit  sur- 
prised when  he  came  upon  it,  and  led  to  question  whether 
after  all  he  had  not  been  exaggerating  the  evil  side  of  things, 
and  expressing  more  alarm  than  what  was  actually  going 
on,  called  for,  or  warranted.  "  Here,"  so  he  says,  "  here  is 
not  more  evils  in  this  kind,  nor  nothing  near  so  many  by 
proportion,  as  in  other  places;    but  they  are  here  more 


454  THE    PILGRIMS 

discovered  and  seen,  and  made  public  by  due  search,  inquisi- 
tion, and  due  punishment ;  for  the  Churches  look  narrowly 
to  their  members,  and  the  magistrates  over  all,  more  strictly 
than  in  other  places." 

The  Pilgrims  were  sensitive  to  moral  evil  in  all  its  forms. 
Indiscretion,  trivial  offences,  tendencies  which  had  a  down- 
ward look,  indulgences,  which  might  grow  into 
Sensitive  bad  habits  and  undermine  character,  as  well 
to  moral  as  gross  iniquities,  were  apt  to  fill  them  with 
evil  fears  and  create  apprehension  of  much  worse 

things  to  come.  Often  it  required  sober  second 
thought,  and  such  comparisons  as  were  instituted  in  the 
paragraph  just  quoted,  to  correct  these  unfavorable  conclu- 
sions, and  make  it  plain  that  vice  and  crime  were  not  in  the 
ascendant.  These  men  had  a  hard  battle  to  fight ;  but  it 
was  with  forces  outside  rather  than  inside  of  their  colony. 

Further  on  in  the  narrative  which  covers  the  period  for 
1642,  Bradford  asks  the  pertinent  question :  "  But  it  may  be 
demanded  how  came  it  to  pass  that  so  many 
Additional  wicked  and  profane  people  should  so  quickly 
light  on  come  over  into  this  land  ?  "     The  governor's 

the  prob-  answer  is  illuminating.  There  were  many 
*eni  things  to  be  done.    Buildings  were  to  be  erected, 

lands  were  to  be  cleared,  agricultural  opera- 
tions were  to  be  carried  on,  and  improvements  were  to  be 
pushed.  Employers  had  to  take  such  help  as  they  could  get. 
Hence  many  "  untoward  servants  "  were  brought  over  and 
set  to  work  —  "  both  men  and  women  kind,  who,  when  their 
times  were  expired,  became  families  of  themselves."  This 
helped  to  lower  the  general  average  of  the  standing  of  the 
community. 

This  was  not  all,  however.  In  that  high  tide  of  migra- 
tion which  swept  toward  America  in  the  ten  years  from  1630 
to  1640,  the  business  of  transporting  "  passengers  and 
their  goods  "  became  active,  and  competition  was  sharp. 
Ships  were  chartered  for  these  voyages,  and  to  "  advance 
their  profits,"  the  masters  took  anybody  aboard  who  "  had 
the  money  to  pay  them."  "  By  this  means  the  country 
became  pestered  with  many  unworthy  persons,  who,  being 
come  over,  crept  into  one  place  or  another." 


THE    PILGRIMS  455 

This  is  Bradford's  explanation  of  the  increase  in  wicked- 
ness which  he  saw  about  him,  and  which  brought  him  such 
keen  distress.  It  was  the  fresh  importations  from  England 
of  apprentices,  servants,  laborers  of  one  grade  and  another, 
and  the  coming  in  upon  them  of  restless,  roving  adventurers, 
that  swelled  the  sum  total  of  vice  and  crime.  A  study  of 
the  criminal  records  of  the  colony  with  a  view  to  ascertain- 
ing who  were  prosecuted  and  punished  for  wrong-doing 
will  justify  this  statement.  The  particular  case  which  filled 
the  mind  of  Bradford  with  so  much  apprehension  had  its 
location  in  this  class.  In  this  way  the  Pilgrims  have  had 
to  bear  a  great  deal  of  unjust  criticism.  Men  like  Lyford 
and  Rogers,  the  one  an  unmitigated  rascal  and  the  other 
the  victim  of  an  eccentric  and  unbalanced  brain,  have  been 
called  their  ministers  and  charged  up  to  the  account  of  the 
Plymouth  colonists ;  but  neither  one  of  them  was  ever  a 
Pilgrim,  and  neither  one  of  them  was  ever  pastor  of  the  Pil- 
grim church.  From  first  to  last  the  Pilgrims  never  failed 
to  show  their  abhorrence  of  iniquity,  and  to  make  evident 
their  deep  and  abiding  purpose  to  live  clean  lives. 

Ill-considered  and  unwarranted  statements  have  some- 
times been  made  to  the  effect  that  these  colonists  were 
mainly  intent  on  material  ends  and  making  sure  of  things 
which  were  to  their  own  advantage. 

The  Pilgrims  had  three  tasks  set  to  their  hands.  They 
had  to  make  a  living.  They  had  to  pay  their  debts.  They 
had  to  build  up  their  homes  and  their  institu- 
What  they  tions.  Had  their  financial  circumstances  been 
had  to  do  much  better  than  they  were,  either  one  of  these 
tasks  would  have  been  a  tremendous  challenge 
to  their  faith  and  courage.  All  three  of  them  together 
would  seem  to  have  been  enough  to  dishearten  the  most 
resolute.  Their  living  must  be  wrung  out  of  the  soil  and 
the  sea.  Their  debts  could  be  paid  only  by  patient  toil,  wise 
planning,  slow  accumulation,  and  the  most  distressing  econ- 
omy. Their  institutions  could  be  built  up  only  by  such  over- 
plus of  strength  and  the  fruits  of  industry  and  thrift  as 
was  left  after  the  more  immediate  obligations  of  making  a 
living  and  paying  debts  had  been  met.  To  accomplish 
these  objects  they  sought  to  increase  their  resources  by  en- 


456  THE    PILGRIMS 

tering  into  trade  with  the  Indians,  and  with  other  people 
who  might  be  induced  to  traffic  with  them.  Working  along 
this  line  they  gathered  and  sent  abroad  such  products  and 
commodities  as  would  bring  a  remunerative  price  in  foreign 
markets.  This  is  the  explanation  of  their  apparent  ab- 
sorption in  material  gains.  They  were  where  they  were  at 
"  great  cost." 

But  why  efforts  like  these,  for  ends  like  these,  should  be 
thought  to  indicate  the  presence  and  sway  of  motives  no 
higher  than  the  ordinary  wordly  motives  by  which  men  are 
controlled  does  not  seem  clear.  On  the  contrary,  working 
hard  to  make  an  honest  living,  paying  debts  down  to  the 
last  farthing,  taxing  brain  and  hand  and  heart  for  the  wel- 
fare of  coming  generations,  would  appear  to  be  conclusive 
proofs  of  an  unselfish  regard  for  the  good  of  others. 

One  might  as  well  say  that  selling  houses  and  lands  and 
other  possessions,  and  arranging  long  and  diligently  for 
passage  across  the  sea  to  Holland,  were  transactions  which 
indicated  a  dominating  worldly  spirit  when  these  about-to- 
be  exiles  were  planning  to  leave  Scrooby.  Or,  again,  one 
might  as  well  say  that  weaving,  carpentering,  candle- 
dipping,  hat-making,  baking  bread,  setting  type,  and  the 
other  occupations  which  they  pursued  in  order  to  earn  a 
living,  filled  the  minds  of  the  Pilgrims  to  the  exclusion  of 
other  thoughts  and  aims  there  at  Leyden,  as  to  say  it  of 
them  at  Plymouth,  when,  with  intense  eagerness,  they  were 
bending  their  utmost  energies  to  such  employments  as  prom- 
ised to  set  them  on  their  feet,  and  aid  them  in  making  good, 
alike  for  themselves  and  their  posterity,  their  great  hope 
and  purpose  of  a  church  and  a  state  founded  on  the  basis  of 
democracy. 

These  insinuations  of  a  predominantly  worldly  spirit  in 
the  Pilgrims  are  unworthy  and  unjust ;  and  the  estimate  of 
their  character  which  rests  on  this  view  fails 
Altruistic  altogether  to  measure  up  to  their  moral  stature, 
aims  and  »phe  interest  shown  by  them  in  worldly  indus- 
lofty  tries  and  business  enterprises  stood  for  some- 

character  thing  quite  other  than  all-absorbing  regard  for 
worldly  gain.  They  were  men  of  pure  intent 
and  lofty  spirit.    Things  honorable  in  the  sight  of  the  wise 


THE    PILGRIMS  457 

and  good,  things  manifestly  approved  of  God,  things  in 
which  posterity  might  rejoice,  were  constraining  motives 
in  their  lives.  Their  lives  were  hard,  self-denying  and  full 
of  toil;  but  they  were  sweet.  They  were  sweet,  because, 
like  the  heavens  over  them,  they  were  sweetened  by  the 
breath  of  God.  Ocean  winds  kept  their  bodies  full  of  ozone ; 
and  the  winds  of  the  Spirit  kept  their  hearts  full  of  health 
and  vigor.  They  could  toil  when  so  faint  that  they  stag- 
gered in  the  fields;  they  could  starve;  they  could  die: 
but  they  would  not  barter  away  their  souls,  nor  lower  their 
standards  of  character.  Temptations  beset  them,  as  they 
beset  all  men  everywhere ;  but  the  solicitations  of  ease  and 
earthly  pleasure  and  worldly  gains  and  ends  other  than 
those  which  bear  the  stamp  of  divine  approval,  were  never 
enticing  enough  to  lead  them  to  strike  the  flag  of  their  in- 
tegrity and  come  to  terms  with  unrighteousness.  They  had 
no  respect  for  theories  of  life  which  are  not  exacting;  and 
they  knew  that  they  could  maintain  their  own  self-respect 
and  the  approval  of  conscience  only  by  walking  uprightly, 
working  righteousness,  and  speaking  the  truth  in  their 
hearts.  Tested  by  any  rational  standard  of  loyalty  to  God, 
by  any  generally  accepted  code  of  Christian  ethics,  and 
by  any  worthy  conception  of  patriotism,  it  will  be  found 
that  the  business  dealings  and  daily  lives  of  the  Pilgrims 
reached  high  levels  and  revealed  motives  which  cannot  be 
resolved  into  terms  of  materialism.  Character  was  what 
they  aimed  at ;  and  character  of  a  sterling  type  was  what 
they  achieved. 

IV 

The  Pilgrims  emphasized  the  faithful  discharge  of  duties 
to  the  state.     Conscientious  in  the  conduct  of  their  homes, 
in  the  management  of  their  business,  and  in 
Empha-  the  practical  expression  of  their  religion,  they 

sized  civic  were  conscientious  in  the  performance  of  their 
duties  political  obligations. 

This  was  a  natural  outgrowth  of  their  views 
of  the  state,  and  of  the  attitude  which  they  thought  all  good 
citizens  ought  to  take  towards  the  state.    For  these  founda- 


458  THE    PILGRIMS 

tion-layers  of  the  republic  held  that  the  state,  like  the 
church,  is  a  divine  institution.  It  has  on  it  the  stamp 
of  divine  authority.  It  is  the  bond  by  which 
The  state  society  is  held  together,  and  the  condition  of 
a  divine  progress   in   intelligence,   wealth,   power,  and 

institution  happiness.  It  is  set  up  not  that  the  few  may 
be  exalted  and  the  many  degraded,  but  that 
there  may  be  order  and  a  fair  chance  for  each  well-disposed 
person  to  go  his  way  and  do  his  work  and  enjoy  the  rewards 
of  his  toil  and  thrift. 

With  this  view  entertained  by  them  of  the  origin  and  pur- 
pose of  the  state,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  in  what  estimate 
they  would  hold  the  laws  which  might  be  passed  by  the  state. 
It  was  not  simply  that  a  few  men  had  come  together  and  by 
a  majority  vote  had  expressed  an  opinion  on  some  matter 
of  public  interest ;  but,  done  by  the  constituents  of  the  state 
and  in  the  name  of  the  state  and  for  the  welfare  of  the 
state,  the  act  was  lifted  out  of  the  realm  of  mere  opinion 
and  clothed  with  a  kind  of  divine  sanction.  It  is  not  difficult, 
either,  to  see  what  sort  of  measures  they  would  seek  to  have 
enacted  into  laws.  It  would  be  only  such  as  they  deemed  to 
be  in  accord  with  the  divine  will.  A  law  out  of  line  with  God 
would  have  seemed  to  them  simply  monstrous.  They  did 
not  hold  that  the  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God; 
but  they  did  hold  that  the  voice  of  God  ought  to  be  the 
voice  of  the  people. 

Entertaining    these   views,    the   Pilgrims   insisted   that 
every  man  should  meet  the  full  measure  of  his  public  obliga- 
tions and  bear  his  full  share  of  the  public  bur- 
All  bound     <fens.    They  made  equal  rights  and  the  liberty 
to  help  0f  j-ne  individual  the  corner-stone  of  their  politi- 

cal edifice  because  they  conceived  this  to  be  in 
closest  accord  with  the  thought  of  God  and  the  dignity  of 
man.  But  while  they  claimed  equal  rights  and  conceded  lib- 
erty on  this  high  ground,  they  also  did  it  in  the  confident  ex- 
pectation that  under  this  system  of  government  men  would 
take  more  interest  in  public  affairs  and  be  more  thoughtful 
of  the  good  of  the  commonwealth.  They  saw  the  value  of 
civic  pride ;  and  this  was  the  way  taken  by  them  to  insure 
and  cultivate  the  spirit  of  patriotism  —  they  gave  every 


THE    PILGRIMS  459 

man  a  voice  in  making  and  administering  the  laws,  and  then 
they  held  every  man  responsible  to  the  limit  of  his  ability  for 
all  demands  made  upon  him  by  the  state.  Opportunities 
were  opened  to  all  and  burdens  were  distributed  to  all.  It 
was  not  on  the  few  but  the  many  that  the  state  was  made  to 
rest ;  and  it  was  not  the  few  alone  but  the  many  who  were  to 
see  to  it  that  no  harm  came  to  their  little  republic.  Men  of 
the  largest  abilities  and  widest  experience,  and  who  were 
most  deeply  engrossed  in  private  affairs,  might  not  plead  ex- 
emption when  called  to  serve  the  public;  and  men  of  the 
smallest  capacity  and  the  least  influence  and  with  the  least  at 
stake  might  not  hide  under  their  insignificance  when  called 
upon  to  express  their  views  through  the  ballot.  Citizenship 
was  at  a  premium.  In  tracing  the  development  of  their  gov- 
ernment we  have  seen  how  men  were  fined  for  refusing  to 
exercise  the  elective  franchise,  or  for  declining  to  hold  an  of- 
fice to  which  they  had  been  elected;  and  how  towns  lost 
standing  by  neglecting  to  have  their  representatives  at  the 
general  court.  It  was  the  way  these  Pilgrims  had  of  em- 
phasizing their  sense  of  the  obligation  every  citizen  of  the 
state  is  under  to  meet  and  discharge  the  full  measure  of  his 
duties  to  the  state. 

It  would  be  foolish  to  try  to  disguise  the  fact  that  right 
at  this  point  where  the  colonists  were  wise  and  strong, 

many  citizens  of  our  great  nation  are  sadly 
Present-  wanting.  It  has  been  forgotten  that  citizen- 
day  short-  shjp  carries  with  it  responsibilities  as  well  as 
coming  privileges,  and  that  no  man  who  means  to  be 

loyal  to  the  flag  may  evade  these  responsibili- 
ties. The  outlook  is  hopeful.  There  is  an  increasing  sense 
of  the  responsibilities  of  citizenship.  Both  as  respects  the 
conscientious  use  of  the  ballot  and  willingness  to  turn  aside 
from  lucrative  occupations  for  a  while  to  fill  important 
official  positions,  there  have  been  marked  gains  in  these  later 
years.  Still  there  is  much  to  be  desired.  There  is  a  class 
of  men  for  whom  the  state,  through  its  schools,  its  orderly 
arrangements,  its  just  laws  and  its  encouragement  of  fore- 
sight, industry  and  thrift,  has  done  more  than  it  is  possible 
to  schedule,  who  hold  themselves  quite  above  the  duty  of 
trying  to  secure  the  best  men  for  office,  or  even  of  taking 


460  THE    PILGRIMS 

pains  to  vote  on  election-day.  When  it  is  suggested  to 
these  men  that  they  take  their  turn  at  bearing  the  burdens 
and  meeting  the  obligations  of  public  station,  they  toss  their 
dainty  noses  high  in  air  and  wreath  their  faces  with  smiles 
of  lofty  disdain.  Pressure  of  business,  disinclination  to 
mingle  with  the  begrimed  and  noisy  crowds  which  are  sup- 
posed to  infest  the  polling-booths,  engagements  at  the 
club,  fondness  for  books  and  the  pursuit  of  culture,  and  the 
mild  attractions  of  slippered  ease,  are  allowed  to  override 
duties  to  country;  and  large  numbers  of  intelligent  and 
virtuous  citizens,  who  ought  to  count  it  at  once  a  sacred  duty 
and  a  high  privilege  to  take  some  positive  part  in  giving 
right  direction  to  public  affairs,  when  the  battle  is  on 
slink  away  like  cowards,  and  then  attempt  to  justify  their 
action  by  confessions  which  are  shameful  impeachments  of 
their  patriotism.  Public  duties  are  not  to  their  taste.  The 
idea  of  serving  is  ignored. 

Now  and  then  some  shocking  exposure  of  graft  fills  these 
overdainty  citizens  with  a  momentary  horror  and  startles 
them  out  of  their  criminal  lethargy.    It  is  more 
Spasms         than  likely,  however,  that  the  sudden  burst  of 
of  zeal  indignation  will  be  only  the  flash  of  a  few  shav- 

ings on  fire,  or  a  rumble  of  thunder  which 
brings  no  rain.  When  the  next  election-day  comes  round, 
or  the  next  petition  to  hold  an  important  office  is  presented, 
the  same  old  excuse  of  pressing  private  duties,  or  pleasure, 
or  intended  absence  from  home,  will  be  offered,  and  the  state 
will  be  left  to  get  on  as  best  it  can. 

If  this  were  all,  the  situation  would  not  be  so  bad.  But 
there  are  instances  in  which  the  neglect  assumes  criminal  as- 
pects. Men  of  financial  standing  and  of  large 
Neglect  influence  in  the  community,  men  who  are  con- 
assumes  cerned  in  important  industrial  projects  in  the 
criminal  shape  of  public  utilities,  refuse  to  hold  office  on 
aspects  the  ground  that  they  cannot  afford  the  time 

and  strength  for  such  service.  But  they  have 
time  and  strength,  through  their  agents,  directly  and  indi- 
rectly, to  bribe  officials  of  easy  virtue,  in  order  to  secure 
what  they  want.  In  justification  of  their  disreputable 
doings  they  say  it  is  "  necessary,"  or  "  cheaper,"  to  do  this 


THE    PILGRIMS  461 

than  to  make  an  open  fight  for  franchises.  Hence  we  have 
corrupt  aldermen,  corrupt  representatives,  corrupt  con- 
gressmen, and  corrupt  officials  all  along  the  line.  There 
would  be  no  purchasable  officials  if  there  were  not  some- 
body to  purchase  them.  There  would  be  no  "  boodlers  "  if 
there  were  no  supply  of  "  boodle."  The  bribe-taker  ought 
to  be  set  in  the  pillory  and  branded  with  contempt ;  but  by 
his  side,  with  the  edge  of  the  pillory-board  a  little  closer  to 
his  neck,  and  the  scorn  of  the  public  a  great  deal  sharper, 
there  ought  to  be  the  bribe-giver.  It  is  useless  to  try  to 
improve  things  with  men  who  are  hungry  for  spoils,  if  no 
notice  is  taken  of  men  who  shirk  their  fair  share  of  public 
burdens  and  buy  their  way  to  advantages  on  which  they 
may  fatten  at  the  public  expense. 

It  is  in  vain  to  look  for  a  return  of  the  simplicity  of  the 
early  days  when  the  people  were  few  and  poor,  and  the  aim 
of  the  leaders  was  so  unselfish  and  high.  All 
Cannot  the  same,  the  cure  for  a  large  number  of  our 

expect  present  evils  lies  in  a  general  and  genuine  re- 

return  vival  of  the  patriotic  spirit  and  deep  sense  of 

of  old  obligation   to   serve   which   characterized   the 

simplicity  members  of  the  Plymouth  colony.  The  men 
who  might  be  leaders  must  consent  to  lead. 
Influential  men  must  be  ready  to  vote  and  to  hold  office. 
From  first  to  last  the  Pilgrims  kept  their  best  men  at  the 
front  in  the  administration  of  public  affairs.  From  first 
to  last  the  best  men  in  the  colony  took  a  practical  interest 
in  public  affairs.  On  what  other  plan  than  this  can  our 
cities,  our  several  states,  and  the  nation  at  large,  ever 
expect  to  deal  successfully  with  the  gangs  of  thieves  and 
robbers  who  scheme  their  way  into  our  legislative  bodies,  or 
haunt  the  lobbies  and  force  all  who  would  gain  their  ends  to 
drop  shining  coins  into  their  political  slot-machines?  In 
our  civic  affairs  we  need  the  reinstatement  of  the  Plymouth 
Rock  conscience. 

This  means  that  there  must  be  an  elevation  of  our  stand- 
ards in  all  departments  of  life.  Sharp  dealing  in  business, 
frenzied  financiering,  systematic  tax-dodging,  corruption 
in  social  circles,  extortion  brought  about  by  the  creation 
of  monopolies  and  the  stifling  of  wholesome  competition, 


462  THE    PILGRIMS 

trampling  on  the  Ten  Commandments  on  the  ground  that 
they  are  antiquated,  and  relegating  the  Sermon  on  the 

Mount  to  the  limbo  of  impracticable  conceits, 
Elevation  w{\\  iea(j  to  a]j  sorts  of  intrigues  and  conspira- 
of  our  cjes  f or  defrauding  the  state.     It  is  illogical 

standard         to  \00fc  for  an  improved  public  sentiment  until 

there  has  been  an  improvement  in  individual 
living.  With  a  rejuvenescence  of  moral  sense  in  the  indi- 
vidual, and  a  settled  determination  to  do  business  on  the 
basis  of  honesty  and  straightforwardness,  with  our  homes 
made  sweeter  and  our  social  life  lifted  to  a  higher  plane, 
and  with  our  churches  alive  with  the  purpose  to  win  men  to 
God  and  to  build  them  up  in  righteousness,  we  may  reason- 
ably expect  to  see  less  selfish  plotting,  less  buying  and  sell- 
ing of  votes,  less  corrupt  use  of  patronage,  and  less  coming 
short  of  all  sorts  in  the  administration  of  public  affairs. 


The  Pilgrims  were  sensitively  alive  to  the  future.  They 
planned,  they  toiled,  they  made  sacrifices,  for  the  future. 

They  could  face  perils,  rise  superior  to  hard- 
Sensitively  ships  and  sorrows  ;  but  they  could  not  be  indif- 
alive  to  f erent  to  the  future.    One  of  the  urgent  reasons 

the  future      for  leaving  Leyden  was  the  welfare  of  their 

posterity.  Another  was  the  hope  of  doing  some- 
thing, even  though  it  were  only  to  make  themselves  "  step- 
ping-stones unto  others,"  to  propagate  the  gospel  and  set  up 
the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  these  remote  parts.  It  was  always 
something  out  ahead  of  them  which  stirred  their  imagina- 
tions, quickened  their  pulses,  and  impelled  them  to  action. 

The  Pilgrims  of  the  Plymouth  colony  were  not  aggres- 
sive in  the  same  way  and  to  the  same  extent  as  were  the 

Puritans  of  the  Bay  colony.  The  late  Dr. 
Not  as  Byington,  in  his  book  on  the  Puritan,  has  a 

aggressive     chapter  in  which  he  institutes  a  comparison  of 
as  the  the  contributions  made  by  the  two  colonies  to 

Puritans        the  subsequent  development  of  the  laws  and 

institutions  of  the  land  on  whose  shores  they 
settled.      It   is   needless   to   say   that  the   comparison   is 


THE    PILGRIMS  463 

marked  by  intelligence,  candor,  and  general  fairness.  He 
claims  much  for  the  Puritans,  as  is  just;  and  he  concedes 
much  to  the  Pilgrims,  which  is  their  due.  In  his  view  "  the 
influence  of  the  Puritans  upon  New  England  has  been 
greater  in  some  respects  than  that  of  the  Pilgrims."  He 
asserts  that  "  the  intellectual  life  of  New  England,  and 
much  of  the  best  religious  life,  has  come  from  them."  He 
makes  the  further  and  more  significant  statement  that  "  the 
energy,  the  enterprise,  the  political  sagacity,  the  genius  for 
creating  new  types  of  government,"  are  our  inheritance 
from  the  Puritans.  On  the  other  hand,  he  admits  that  "  the 
beauty,  the  poetry,  of  New  England  have  come,  in  great 
part,  from  those  who  landed  at  Plymouth  Rock.  They  have 
taught  the  world  a  larger  tolerance,  gentler  manners,  purer 
laws."  These,  it  may  be  said  again,  are  intelligent  and 
careful  estimates,  and  in  the  main  they  are  sound. 

A  careful  study,  however,  reveals  somewhat  more  than  is 
here  conceded  to  go  to  the  credit  of  the  Pilgrims.  In  their 
habit  of  returning  to  first  principles  and  build- 
More  to  mg  on  them,  and  in  looking  forward  and 
credit  weighing  actions  by  their  probable  bearing  on 

of  the  the  future,  the  Pilgrims  did  some  things  which 

Pilgrims  were  more  important  to  New  England,  to  the 
whole  land,  and  to  the  world,  than  were  ever 
(done  by  the  Puritans.  Nothing  needs  to  be  deducted  from 
the  priceless  services  rendered  by  other  colonies  on  these 
shores;  but  there  are  particulars  in  which  the  contribu- 
tions of  the  Pilgrims  to  the  progress  of  mankind  have  no 
parallel  in  value. 

Neither  in  numbers,  nor  in  wealth,  nor  in  learning,  nor 
in  capacity  for  such  achievements  as  are  conditioned  on 
numbers  and  wealth  and  learning,  were  the 
Resources  Pilgrims  equal  to  the  Puritans.  The  Pilgrims 
limited  were  constrained  by  their  location   and  their 

pecuniary  circumstances  to  a  narrower  life 
than  the  Puritans.  It  was  the  Puritans  who  started  a 
college  so  soon  after  their  arrival  in  New  England,  though 
the  Pilgrims  were  intensely  interested  in  education  and  lent 
their  aid  to  this  institution.  So  long  as  the  Bay  State 
endures,  Harvard  will  be  a  standing  monument  to  the  re- 


464  THE    PILGRIMS 

gard  entertained  by  the  founders  of  the  Bay  colony  for 
sound  learning.  It  was  the  Puritans  who  pushed  out  their 
settlements  the  more  rapidly  and  took  possession  of  wider 
areas  of  country.  It  was  the  Puritans  who  very  early  had 
their  ships  on  the  high  seas,  laden  with  their  wealth-yielding 
cargoes.  It  was  the  Puritans  who  were  thorns  in  the  sides 
of  royalty,  and  who  were  always  giving  trouble  to  high 
officials  in  church  and  state. 

Nevertheless,  when  it  comes  to  such  fundamental  and  far- 
reaching  qualities  as  "  political  sagacity,"  and  "  the  genius 
for  creating  new  types  of  government,"  it  will 
Achieve-  De  found  that  the  Pilgrims  must  be  accorded 
ments  in  seats  far  in  front  of  all  competitors, 
government  ft  was  the  Pilgrims,  and  not  the  Puritans, 
remarkable  wno  discovered  and  announced  the  principles  of 
democracy  on  which  Massachusetts,  New  Eng- 
land, and  the  great  republic  were  to  build  their  institutions. 
The  simple  document,  signed  in  the  cabin  of  the  ship  which 
brought  Carver  and  his  company  across  the  Atlantic,  has 
been  the  directing  and  most  vital  force  in  the  politics  of  the 
nation  from  the  day  on  which  it  was  drafted  until  now. 
Nothing  ever  done  by  any  colony  reached  so  far  down  into 
the  heart  of  things  political,  and  so  far  out  into  subsequent 
years,  as  the  issuing  of  the  covenant  by  which  the  Pilgrims 
organized  themselves  into  "  a  civil  body  politic "  on  the 
broad  basis  of  the  equal  rights  of  man. 

It  was  the  Pilgrims  again,  and  not  the  Puritans,  who, 
looking  backward  and  then  forward,  brought  to  light  and 
set  up  a  genuine  Congregationalism.  The  theory  of  a  self- 
governing  church  was  something  which  Endicott,  at  Salem, 
had  to  learn  from  Fuller,  at  Plymouth ;  and  which  the  Bay 
colony  had  to  relearn  from  the  Old  Colony.  Dr.  Bying- 
ton  concedes  both  these  claims.  "  The  Pilgrims,"  so  he 
says,  "  had  a  Colony  well  organized  and  governed  accord- 
ing to  democratic  principles,  and  a  Church  organized  after 
the  Congregational  way  before  the  Puritans  came."  The 
concessions  are  large  ones.  With  so  much  settled  all  else  in 
church  and  state  alike  were  matters  of  detail. 

It  was  the  Pilgrims  once  more,  and  not  the  Puritans,  who 
exemplified  the  most  advanced  toleration  of  the  time.     If 


THE    PILGRIMS  465 

Roger  Williams  did  not  learn  his  principles  of  toleration 
from  the  Pilgrims,  he  might  have  done  it.  They  were  tol- 
erant towards  him  when  he  was  intolerant  towards  them; 
and  he  left  Plymouth  because  he  was  not  able  at  that  time 
to  mount  to  the  high  table-land  of  appreciation  and  for- 
bearance which  they  occupied. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  there  has  been  another  group 
of  men  in  all  history  who  were  charged  at  once  with  the 
responsibility  of  state-building  and  church-building,  who 
laid  the  foundations  of  these  two  structures  so  broadly,  and 
with  such  a  far,  wise  look  into  the  future,  as  this  little  band 
of  Pilgrims  who  set  foot  on  Plymouth  Rock  in  1620.  What 
is  more,  they  not  only  laid  the  foundations  broadly  and 
wisely,  but  their  superstructures,  political;  and  ecclesias- 
tical, when  completed,  were  found  to  be  consistent  with  the 
ground  plan.  The  latter  end  of  their  commonwealth  did 
not  forget  the  beginning.  We  are  living  in  the  to-morrow 
which  these  simple,  but  far-visioned  seers  and  statesmen 
foresaw  and  for  which  they  wrought.  We  are  to  do  to-day 
with  all  fidelity  each  bit  of  work  which  lies  at  our  hands. 
This  will  make  our  next  day  brighter,  and  by  so  much  set 
the  world  forward.  We  shall  still  lack  something,  however, 
of  the  Pilgrim  spirit,  if,  in  the  conduct  of  our  schools  and 
colleges,  in  the  ordering  and  working  of  our  churches,  in 
the  direction  we  give  to  our  domestic,  social,  and  industrial 
economies,  in  the  management  of  our  philanthropic  and 
missionary  organizations,  and  in  the  framing  of  our  laws 
and  the  shaping  of  our  public  policies,  we  do  not  keep 
steadily  in  mind  the  welfare  of  those  who  are  to  live 
after  us. 

"  O,  Thou  Holy  One  and  Just, 
Thou,  who  wast  the  Pilgrim's  trust, 
Thou,  who  watchest  o'er  their  dust, 

By  the  moaning  sea ; 
By  their  conflicts,  toils  and  cares, 
By  their  perils  and  their  prayers, 
By  their  ashes,  make  their  heirs 
True  to  them  and  Thee." 


INDEX 


Abbott,  Bishop  George,  156. 
Accessions  to  Pilgrim  colonists,  245, 

248,  251,  272. 
Acorns,  parched,  found,  207. 
Act  of  Supremacy,  22. 
Act  of  Uniformity,  21. 
Adams,  John,  183. 
Adams,  John  Quincy,  119,  183. 
Adams,  Samuel,  48,  368. 
Adventurers.      See    Merchant    Ad- 
venturers. 
Agawam,  208,  357.    See  Ipswich. 
Amsworth,    Rev.   Henry,    101,    141; 

life  and   writings,    108,    109;    on 

Smyth,  107. 
Alden,  John,  182,  199,  258,  271,  345, 

388. 
Alden,     Priscilla      Mullins      (Mrs. 

John),  258. 
Alexander,  Pokanoket  Indian,  son  of 

Massasoit,  413. 

Allerton, ,  sailor,  208. 

Allerton,     Fear       Brewster      (Mrs. 

Isaac),  333. 
Allerton,  Isaac,  124,  128,  130,  162, 

254,  265,  271,  301,  315,  452;  visits 

England,  269,   333;    secures    new 

agreement  with  Adventurers,  270; 

opens  trading-post,  279. 
Alva,  Duke  of,  25. 
Ames,  Dr.  Azel,  v,  166, 179, 186, 190, 

255 ;  on  Martin,  179. 
Amicis,  Edmondo  de,  96. 
Amsterdam,    Scrooby  fellowship    in, 

96-105 ;  reasons  for  settling  in,  98 ; 

English-speaking  people  in,    100; 

Separatist     dissensions     at,     103; 

"Ancient Church "  in,  101 ;  reasons 

for  leaving,  102,  110. 
Anabaptists,   Holland,   influence   of, 

10. 
Anawan,  surrender  of,  418,  422. 
"Ancient  Church,"  Amsterdam,  101; 

Ainsworth  pastor  of,  109 ;  Scrooby 

fellowship  with,  111. 


"Ancient  Landmarks  of  Plymouth" 
(Davis),  357. 

Andrews, ,  281. 

Andros,  Sir  Edmund,  348,  405,  427, 
430. 

Anne,  the  ship,  251,  254,  255,  267, 
268,  272,  354. 

"Annotations"  (Ainsworth),  108. 

"Apparators,"  87,  97. 

Apple-trees  in  Plymouth  Colony,  258. 

Aragon,  Catherine  of,  20. 

Arber,  Edward,  v,  84,  127,  229. 

Archangel,  the  ship,  298. 

Armada,  the  Invincible,  24. 

Arminian  and  Calvinistic  contro- 
versy, 135,  136. 

Arminius,  119,  135. 

Arnold,  Gov. (Conn.),  387. 

Arrival  at  Cape  Cod,  192. 

Arrows,  Indian,  210,  292,  311,  423. 

Arson,  366,  370. 

Art,  in  Leyden,  118. 

Articles  of  Agreement,  159,  264,  265, 
269;  modified,  161'  ratification  re- 
fused, 161;  readjustment  of,  268, 
270. 

Articles,  Thirty-Nine,  the,  22. 

Artisans,  Dutch,  in  England,  8. 

Ashley,  Edward,  279,  284. 

Ashurst,  Sir  Henry,  432. 

Assembly,  legislative,  374,  397. 

Assistants  to  governor,  364,  374,  375, 
377. 

Atwood,  John,  285. 

Augusta,  Me.,  trading-post  at,  277, 
278. 

Augustus,  Emperor,  24. 

Austerfield,  Eng.,  birthplace  of  Brad- 
ford, 71. 

Babington  conspiracy,  the,  69. 
Bacon,  Dr.  Leonard,  v,  2,  84;    on 

Browne,  42;    on  Street,  349;    on 

King  Philip,  410. 
Bacon,  Lord,  23. 


468 


INDEX 


Ballot-box,  importance  of  the,  376. 
Bancroft,  George,  v,  242;  on  "High 

Commission,"  22;    on  Mayflower 

Compact,  198. 
Banishment,  89,  332,  389. 
Baptism,  107,  328,  335,  336,  339,  340. 
Barley,  Pilgrims  raise,  309. 
Barnstable,  Mass.,  283,  346,  349,  373, 

405. 

Barrowe, ,  25,  102,  104,  105,  141. 

Barry,  John  Stetson,  v,  18,  380,  394. 

Bartlett, ,  v. 

Baskets,  Indian,  found  by  settlers, 

207. 
Bass,  fishing  for,  357. 

Bassett, ,  122,  345. 

Bay  Colony.    See  Massachusetts  Bay 

Colony. 
"Bay  Psalm-book,"  256. 
Bayard,  Thomas  F.,  96. 
Baylies,  Francis,   v,   262,   288,   318, 

365,  368. 
Bays.    See  Plymouth,  Massachusetts, 

Narragansett,  etc. 

Beachamp, ,  281. 

Beads,  for  trading,  247;    wampum, 

275.     See  Wampum. 
Beans,  a  food  staple,  252 ;  baked,  258. 
Beaver,  247,  266,  267,  277,  285,  286. 
Bedlam,  Separatist  meetings  at,  54. 
Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  48. 
Beef,  scarcity  of,  in  Plymouth,  254, 

257. 

Beers,  Capt. ,  420. 

Bell,  first  church,  338. 

Bell  Alley,  Leyden,  120,  127,  132. 

Bernard,  Richard,  143. 

Berries,  wild,  a  source  of  food  supply, 

247,  258. 
Beverages,  Pilgrims',  254. 
Bible,  the,  6,  13,  107,  329,  356,  444, 

445   448. 
Billington,  John,  178,  196,  371,  452. 
Billington,  John,  Jr.,  304. 
Billington,  Mrs.  John,  Sr.,  372. 
Birth,  first  (at  sea),  188. 
Births,  in  Holland,  139. 
Blankets,  for  trade  with  Indians,  277. 
Blaxland,  G.  Cuthbert,  170. 
"Bloody  Mary."     See  Mary  Tudor. 
Boleyn,  Anne,  20. 
Book  of  Acts,  32. 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  21. 
Books,  47,  104;   printed  in  Leyden, 

127,  134;  of  Quakers,  387. 


Boston,  Eng.,  port  of,  90. 

Boston,  Mass.,  256,  257,  403,  428, 
430. 

Boston  Bay,  216 ;  Indians  of,  314. 

Boston  church,  the,  336. 

Boston  Common,  execution  on,  390. 

Boston  Harbor,  306. 

Boundaries  of  Plymouth  Colony,  277, 
395,  399. 

Bourne, ,  missionary  to  Indians, 

417. 

Bow  Churchyard,  Separatists  at,  45. 

Bowls,  Indian,  found,  206,  207. 

Boyle,  W.  H.  W.,  324. 

Bradford,  Alice  Southworth  (2d 
Mrs.  Wm.),  258. 

Bradford,  Dorothy  (1st  Mrs.  Wm.), 
218. 

Bradford,  William  (Pilgrim),  v,  71- 
74,  123,  126,  130,  162,  166,  201, 
203,  208,  237,  251,  257,  258,  271, 
274,  315,  329,  343,  345,  354,  383, 
400;  early  life  and  education,  72; 
joins  Separatists,  73;  Cotton 
Mather  on,  74;  his  wife's  death, 
218 ;  illness  of,  231 ;  receives  pat- 
ent, 277,  367;  intercepts  letters, 
332;  commissioner,  397. 

Quotations:  52,  84,  102,  121, 
122,  123,  124,  148,  149,  150,  151, 
166,  175,  178,  199,  211,  212,  216, 
222,  232,  238,  245,  301 ;  on  perse- 
cution at  Scrooby,  87,  88 ;  on  de- 
parture for  Holland,  90,  91,  92, 
93 ;  on  Smyth,  106 ;  on  Cushman, 
128 ;  on  Robinson  debate,  136 ;  on 
Leyden  church,  142,  146 ;  on  leav- 
ing Holland,  167;  on  Mayflower 
Compact,  196 ;  on  fishing,  248 ;  on 
cattle,  255;  on  articles  of  agree- 
ment, 270;  on  Billington,  178,  452; 
on  newcomers,  280 ;  on  debts,  286 ; 
on  Hunt's  capture  of  Indians, 
298;  on  Squanto,  299,  300;  on 
Brewster's  ministry,  329 ;  on  Ly- 
ford,  330;  on  Rogers,  333;  on 
Rev.  Ralph  Smith,  335 ;  on  Roger 
Williams,  337;  on  Norton,  338; 
on  schools,  353;  on  social  vices, 
453  454. 

Bradford,  William,  Jr.,  354. 

Bradstreet,  Gov.  Simon,  406,  430. 

Braind, ,  Quaker,  389. 

Branding  culprits,  372. 

Bread,  246,  247,  251. 


INDEX 


469 


Brewer,  Thomas,  124,  126,  135. 

Brewster,  Fear,  333. 

Brewster,  Jonathan,  345. 

Brewster,  Love,  345. 

Brewster,William  (Elder),  58, 76, 121, 
123,  126,  127,  129,  134,  141,  155, 
166,  182,  232,  258,  271,  326,  329, 
334, 336,  340,  343,  354,  400;  organ- 
izes and  leads  Scrooby  Separa- 
tists, 60,  70;  early  life  and  char- 
acter, 65;  with  Davison,  66-70; 
post  at  Scrooby,  70;  "Seven  Ar- 
ticles," 163;  "Instances  of  Induce- 
ment," 163;  ministry  to  the 
Pilgrims,  327,  333;  removes  to 
Duxbury,  345. 

Bridewell,  the,  prison,  55. 

Bridgewater,  Mass.,  350,  420,  421. 

"Brief  Account  of  Discipline  in  the 
Scotch  Church"  (Calderwood), 
127. 

"Brief  Narration"  (Winslow),  168. 

Bristol,  Me.,  294. 

Brookfield,  Mass.,  siege  of,  419. 

Brown,  Dr. ,  v ;  on  Browne,  41 ; 

on  Winslow,  125. 

Brown,  John,  32,  398. 

Brown,  Peter,  235,  236. 

Browne,  Dorothy  Boteler,  38. 

Browne,  Francis,  38. 

Browne,  Philip,  38. 

Browne,  Robert,  54,  76,  105,  141; 
life  and  teaching,  38-40 ;  character 
of,  40-46;  writings,  47-49. 

Brownists,  the,  41,  56. 

Bryant,  William  Cullen,  222. 

Bulls,  brought  into  Plymouth  Colony, 
254,  255. 

Burgomasters,  Leyden,  petition  to, 
112. 

Burial  Hill,  Plymouth,  233,  259. 

Burleigh,  Lord,  22,  38. 

Burning,  Protestants,  24;  witches, 
382. 

Bury  St.  Edmunds,  25;  Robert 
Browne  at,  39. 

Bushnell,  Horace,  324. 

Butler, ,  123. 

Butten,  William,  188. 

Butter,  scarcity  of,  173,  251,  258,  295. 

Buzzards  Bay,  276. 

Byington,  Dr. ,  v,  462. 

Cadiz,  Spain,  24. 
Calderwood,  David,  127. 


Calves.    See  Cattle. 

Calvin,  John,  9. 

Calvinism  vs.  Lutherism,  140. 

Calvinist  and  Arminian  controversy, 
135,  136. 

Cambridge,  Eng.,  38,  39. 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  348. 

"Cambridge  Concordance"  (New- 
man), 349. 

"Cambridge  Platform,"  the,  348. 

Campbell,  Douglas,  v,  114. 

Campen,  Holland,  Separatists  at, 
101. 

Cannon,  mounted  on  platform  at 
Plymouth,  229. 

Canonicus,  sends  challenge  to  Pil- 
grims, 311,  312. 

Cape  Cod,  293,  294,  303,  357,  417; 
sighted  by  Pilgrims,  189 ;  Pilgrims 
land  at,  200 ;  explorations  on,  201- 
219;  harbor  of,  216. 

Capital  crimes,  370,  387,  390. 

Captain,  office  of,  Plymouth  militia, 
284. 

Captain's  Hill,  Duxbury,  345. 

Carter,  Robert,  178,  180. 

Cartier,  explorer,  185,  233. 

Cartwright,  Thomas,  35-37,  38,  47, 
141. 

Carver,  Gov.  John  (Pilgrim),  124, 
126,  130,  162,  179,  180,  187,  199, 
208,  235,  237,  243,  301,  302;  first 
governor,  125;  agent,  155;  dies, 
229;  his  wife  dies,  229. 

Castine,  Me.,  279,  284. 

Catherine  de  Medici,  66. 

Catherine  of  Aragon,  20. 

Catholicism,  19,  20,  25,  26,  27,  140, 
150. 

Cattle,  in  Plymouth,  254 ;  division  of, 
255,  274. 

Champlain,  explorer,  185,  218,  233. 

Chapels,  forbidden  by  Elizabeth,  26. 

Character,  moral,  importance  of,  to 
Pilgrims,  450,  451,  456. 

Chanty,  the  ship,  254,  255. 

Charles  II,  254,  320,  382;  ends  per- 
secution of  Quakers,  390;  grants 
Connecticut  charter,  398. 

Charles  V  (Spain),  96. 

Charleston,  S.  C,  342. 

Charlestown,  Mass.,  280. 

Charter,  Connecticut's,  398. 

Charter,  Massachusetts  Bay's,  336, 
428,  432. 


470 


INDEX 


Chatham,  Mass.,  299.  See  Mono- 
moy. 

Chaucer,  12. 

Chauncey,  Charles,  339,  348;  pres. 
of  Harvard,  340. 

Cheese.     See  Dairy  products. 

Cheever,  George  B.,  v,  194,  214. 

Children  of  Pilgrims,  in  Holland,  139, 
149,  150;  number  of,  243,  354; 
born  on  Mayflower,  188,  229; 
deaths  among,  232,  354;  training, 
353,  354. 

Chilton,  James,  219. 

Choate,  Isaac  Bassett,  146. 

Choate,  Rufus,  222,  234. 

"Christian  Fellowship"  (Robinson), 
137. 

Christian  Indians  ("Praying"  Indi- 
ans), 417,  418. 

Christison,  Wenlock,  389. 

Chronology,  systems  of,  75. 

Church,  Capt.  Benjamin,  319,  405, 
418,  419,  421. 

Church,  in  Amsterdam,  103 ;  in  Ley- 
den,  141-143;  in  Plymouth',  324- 
350,  400,  437-450.  See  Sabbath 
observance. 

Church  government,  446;  Thomas 
Cartwright  on,  36;  Francis  John- 
son on,  104,  105 ;  system  of,  Ley- 
den,  140-143;  "Seven  Articles," 
162;  Roger  Williams  on,  336; 
Charles  Chauncey  on,  339. 

Church  of  England,  76,  163,  336,  339. 

Churches,  Old  Colony,  Plymouth, 
53;  "Ancient,"  Amsterdam,  101; 
"Pilgrim  Fathers,"  102;  St.  Peter's, 
Leyden,  117,  118, 120;  St.  Helen's, 
Austerfield,  72. 

Citizenship,  in  Holland,  139;  in 
Plymouth,  403,  458,  459.  See 
Freemen. 

Civic  duties,  376-378,  457-460. 

Clams,  a  staple  of  food,  248,  258; 
clam  shells  used  for  wampum,  275. 

Clapboard,  183,  266,  267. 

Clark,  Nathaniel,  429,  431. 

Clark,  William,  420. 

Clarke, ,  mate,  208. 

Clarke,  Gov.  Walter  (R.  I.),  430. 

Clark's  Island,  211,  213,  214,  215, 
217,  224,  225,  429,  431,  443. 

Clement  Vn,  Pope,  20. 

Clink,  the,  prison,  55. 

Clothing,  244,  245,  296. 


Clyfton,  Richard,  62-64,  73,  76,  109. 
Code  of  Laws,  framed,  367. 
Coles  Hill,  Plymouth,  233. 
College.     See  Harvard. 
Collier,  William,  179,  345,  403. 

Collins, ,  123. 

Colonies,     Confederation     of     New 

England,  395-407. 
Colonists,  Weston's,  247,  312,  317. 

See  Plymouth  Colonists. 
Colony.    See  Plymouth,  Mass.  Bay, 

Conn.,  etc. 
Colts.     See  Live  stock. 
Commission  of  peers,  69. 
Commissioners,   Colonial,   386,   397, 

398,  405;  King's,  the,  320. 
Committee  on  Indian  troubles,  315. 
Committee  on  laws  and  statutes,  367. 
Committees  of  public  safety,  430. 
Common,  Boston,  390. 
Common-house,  228,  235,  237,  239. 
Communion,  328,  335,  339,  340. 
Communism  at  Plymouth,  249. 
Compact.    See  Mayflower  Compact. 
Confederacy,   the    Pokanoket,    301, 

305,  311,  417. 
Confederation,   the    New    England, 

395-407;    reasons  for,   395,   396; 

basis  of,  397,  403;  revised  articles 

of,  398,  406;    benefits  from,  399- 

402,  404,  406. 
Conference     meetings,     introduced, 

344. 
Confession  of  Faith,  the  Church  of 

England,  163 ;  the  Separatist,  108. 
Confession  of  witchcraft,  381. 
Conformity,  conflict  of  Dissent  with, 

19  seq. 
Congregationalism,    10,   41,   43,   44, 

142,  324,  464. 
"Congregationalist,  The,"  324. 
Congregationalists,  early  English,  10, 

44,  45. 
Connecticut,  capital  crimes  in,  370; 

witchcraft  in,  382;  joins  confeder- 
ation, 395 ;  colonial  commissioners 

of,  397,  398;  charter  of,  398. 
Conspiracies,    the     Babington,    69; 

Captain  Jones'  alleged,  190,  191; 

Indian,  311,  312,  313,  314;  against 

Robinson,    329;     of    Lyford    and 

Oldam,  331. 
Constitution,  the  English,  23. 
Constitution,  the  Pilgrims',  195. 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  32. 


INDEX 


471 


"Constitutional  History"  (Hallam), 
20. 

Consumption,  231. 

Controversy,  Lutheran  and  Calvin- 
istic,  135,  136,  140. 

Conventicles,  forbidden  by  Elizabeth, 
26. 

Convocations,  21,  163. 

Cook,  Francis,  258. 

Cook,  John,  258. 

Cooke, ,  293. 

Cooper,  182. 

Copeland, ,  Quaker,  389. 

Coppin, ,  mate,  208,  209,  210. 

Copping,  John,  25. 

Corbitant,  305,  306,  307. 

Corn,  Indian,  taken  from  Indians, 
202,  203,  206,  293,  303,  304, 
318;  planting,  244,  250;  drought 
threatens,  251,  252;  light  crop, 
246 ;  traded  with  Indians,  277. 

Correction,  House  of,  built  for  im- 
prisonment of  Quakers,  387. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  340,  347,  348. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  Jr.,  340-342,  343, 
344,  348. 

Council,  governor's,  the,  428. 

Council  for  New  England,  The,  154, 
190,  197,  269,  277.  See  Plymouth 
Virginia  Company  and  Merchant 
Adventurers. 

Council  of  Oxford,  the,  32. 

"  Counterpoyson  "  (Ainsworth),  108. 

Court.    See  General  Court. 

Court  of  Election,  the,     375. 

Courts,  "commissarie,"  87,  97. 

Courts,  formation  of,  365. 

"  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish" 
(Longfellow),  131. 

Covenant,  Chief  Philip's,  414. 

Coverdale,  6,  7,  8. 

Cows,  in  Plymouth  Colony,  254,  255, 
256. 

Crab-shells,  baskets  made  of,  207. 

"Cradle  of  a  Commonwealth,"  198. 

Crandon,  Edwin  S.,  52. 

Cranmer,  34. 

Crimes,  370,  371,  386,  454,  455. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  12,  28,  126,  349. 

Cudworth, ,  283. 

Currency,  wampum  used  as,  275, 
277,  429. 

Cushman,  Isaac,  342. 

Cushman,  Mary  Allerton  (Mrs. 
Thomas),  258. 


Cushman,  Robert,  122, 124,  128, 129, 
130,  162, 176,  179,  249,  319;  agent, 
155;  concludes  agreement  with 
Adventurers,  161,  172;  arrives  at 
Plymouth,  244,  265;  on  Lyford, 
330. 

Cushman,  Thomas  (Elder),  259,  340, 
354. 

Cuthbertson, ,  123. 

Dairy  products,  251,  257,  258,  295. 
Dartmouth,  Eng.,  Pilgrims  put  in  at, 

175. 
Dartmouth,  Mass.,  319;   Indian  at- 
tacks on,  419,  420. 
Dartmouth  Indians,  the,  318. 
D'Aulney,  284. 

Davenport,  Rev.  John,  347,  349. 
Davis,  Dr.  O.  S.,  v,  137. 
Davis,  William  T.,  v,  194,  357,  362. 
Davison,  William,  66-68,  70. 

Day, ,  the  Harvard  printer,  256. 

"Day  of  humiliation,"  252,  404.    See 

Fast  days. 
"Day   of  thanksgiving,"    253.     See 

Thanksgiving  Day. 
De  Monts,  233,  234. 
De  Tocqueville,  Alexis,  362,  363. 
Death  penalty,  the,  370,  387,  390. 
Deaths,  at  sea,  188;    at  Cape  Cod, 

218,  233;  first  year,  180,  229,  230, 

231,  232,  234. 
Debt,  to  Merchant  Adventurers,  262- 

286,  455;   imprisonment  for,  372; 

for  Philip's  War,  423. 
Declaration    of    Independence,    the, 

368. 
Declaration  of  rights,  the,  368. 
Deer,  203,  248,  258,  310. 
Deerfield,  Mass.,  Indian  attack  on, 

419. 
Deity,  Pilgrims'  conception  of  and 

reverence  for  the,  438-441. 
Delfshaven,  166,  167,  327. 
"Democracy    in      America"       (De 

Tocqueville),  363. 
Democracy  in  Plymouth  Colony,  198, 

199,  371,  373,  374,  402,  431,  458, 

464. 

Dennison, ,  406. 

Deptford,  Eng.,  Separatist  meetings 

Deputies  to  general  court,  373,  377. 

Dermer,  Capt. ,  298. 

Dexter,  Prof.  Franklin  Bowditch,  v. 


472 


INDEX 


Dexter,  Henry  Martyn,  v,  170. 

Dexter,  Morton,  v,  99,  114;  on 
Cartwright,  36;  on  Browne,  43; 
on  Smyth,  106 ;  on  Winslow,  126 ; 
on  debts,  286. 

Dexters,  the,  v,  146. 

Dickinson,  J.  W.,  on  schools,  352. 

Disease,  188,  231,  233,  291,  295.  See 
Sickness. 

Disfranchisement,  376;  of  Quakers, 
386. 

Dissent,  conflict  of  Conformity  with, 
19  seq. 

Dissenters,  89. 

"Dissuasion  Against  Separatism  Con- 
sidered" (Robinson),  77,  106. 

Dorchester,  Mass.,  348. 

Dotey,  Edward,  178,  199,  208,  371. 

Douglas,  James,  362. 

Douw,  Gerard,  118. 

Dover,  N.  H.,  338. 

Draper,  Andrew  S.,  on  schools,  352. 

Drill,  military,  309. 

Drought,  the  great,  251. 

Ducks,  205,  244.    See  Mallard. 

Duel  fought  in  Plymouth,  178,  371. 

Dunning,  Dr.  A.  E.,  436. 

Dunster, ,  pres.  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege, 340. 

Dutch,  immigration  and  influence  in 
England,  8;  population  in  Eng- 
land, 9;  offer  aid  to  Leyden  fel- 
lowship, 157;  send  horses  to  Bos- 
ton, 256 ;  settlement  at  Manhattan, 
274,  284. 

Duxbury,  Mass.,  258,  345,  348,  356, 
367,  373. 

Dyer,  Mary  (Mrs.),  390. 

East  Anglia,  Congregationalists  in, 
41. 

East  Halton  Skitter,  port  of  depar- 
ture, 91. 

East  Harbor,  Cape  Cod,  202. 

Eastham,  Mass.,  209,  292,  304,  321, 
346,  348.    See  Nauset. 

Eaton, ,  355. 

Eaton,  Samuel,  258. 

Ecclesiastical  Establishment  of  Eng- 
land, 22. 

Edward  VI,  19,  34. 

Eels,  Capt. ,  319. 

Elder,  the  Ruling,  341,  342. 

Elders  in  church  government,  141. 

Election,  Court  of,  375. 


Eliot,  John  (apostle),  288,  347,  417. 

Elliott,  Charles  W.,  v,  18,  413. 

Ellis,  George  Edward,  394. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  9,  59,  70,  71,  153; 
and  Protestantism,  19  seq.;  her  at- 
titude explained,  26  seq. 

Elizabethan  era,  23. 

Ely, ,  sailor,  178. 

Endicott,  Gov.  - — ,  130,  343. 

"England  and  Holland  of  the  Pil- 
grims, The"  (Dexter),  62. 

English, ,  sailor,  208. 

English  laws,  89,  363,  365,  366. 

"  English  Separatism "  (Macken- 
nal),  6. 

Englishmen  killed  by  Indians,  293. 

Episcopacy  in  Plymouth,  331. 

Episcopius,  135. 

Equality,  political.     See  Democracy. 

Established  Church.  See  Church  of 
England. 

Estates,  administration  of,  366. 

Evarts,  William  M.,  324. 

"Exercise  of  Prophecy"  (Robinson), 
137. 

Explorations  of  Pilgrims,  201-203, 
204-208,  209-212,  218. 

Explorers,  early,  of  New  England, 
218. 

Exposing  Indians'  heads,  316. 

Extension,  church,  344. 

Family  training  among  the  Pilgrims, 
354. 

Famines,  at  Plymouth,  245,  247,  250, 
251. 

Fast  days,  at  Leyden,  166 ;  at  Plym- 
outh, 252,  253,  259,  404. 

Faunce, (Elder),  429. 

Finance,  Pilgrims,  at  Leyden,  154 
seq.;  troubles  at  Southampton,  172; 
troubles  at  Plymouth,  262-286 ;  in- 
dorsers  of,  271,  273;-  readjustment 
of,  272;  policy  of,  273. 

Fines,  372,  376,  377,  385,  386,  429. 

Fire,  237,  239;  law  against  setting, 
366. 

"First  Encounter,"  the,  210,  293. 

"First  Sickness,"  the,  180. 

Fish,  207,  226,  244,  258,  268. 

Fisher,  George  P.,  2. 

Fishing,  155,  160,  247,  248,  285,  357, 
366. 

Fishing-fleet  aids  Pilgrims,  246. 

Fishing-grounds  easily  accessible,  224. 


INDEX 


473 


Fishing-smack,  French,  wrecked,  293. 

Fiske,  John,  v,  222,  233,  426;  on 
English  Bible,  6 ;  on  Philip's  War, 
410. 

Fitz,  Richard,  45,  54. 

Fleet,  the,  prison,  55,  104. 

Food,  244,  247,  253,  257,  258;  scar- 
city of,  245,  250,  251. 

Forefathers'  Day,  217. 

Forgery  of  deeds,  372. 

Fort,  the  first,  in  Plymouth,  228,  326. 

Fortune,  the  ship,  244,  248,  265,  271, 
354,  405 ;  captured,  267. 

Fotheringay  Castle,  Queen  Mary  im- 
prisoned at,  69. 

Fowl,  203,  248,  258,  309. 

Fox,  George,  384. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  48. 

Free  Church  martyrs,  first,  25. 

Free  schools,  352,  357,  358. 

Freedom  of  the  press,  suspended, 
428. 

Freedom  of  worship,  denied,  339, 
428. 

Freemen,  365,  374,  375,  376,  403,  430. 

French  raids  in  Maine,  279,  284. 

Fresh  Water  Pond,  Cape  Cod,  202. 

Friends,  Society  of,  384.  See  Quakers. 

Frobisher,  Martin,  185. 

Froude,  ,  on   Queen  Elizabeth, 

26. 

Fruit,  abundance  of,  in  Plymouth, 
258. 

Fuller,  Bridget,  355. 

Fuller,  Dr.  Samuel  (Pilgrim),  123, 
124,  129,  130,  162,  166,  199,  258, 
271,  308,  343,  354 ;  will  of,  256. 

Furs,  267,  268,  295;  first  shipment 
of,  266;  trade  with  Indians  for, 
277. 

Gabriel,  the  ship,  185. 

Gainsborough,  75,  90;  Separatist 
church  at,  53,  60,  78 ;  memorial  to 
Robinson,  94;  Separatists  in  Am- 
sterdam, 102. 

Game,  a  staple  of  food,  247,  258. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  48. 

Garrison-house,  Clark's,  420. 

Gates,  Gov. (Va.),  182. 

Geese,  wild,  205. 

General  Court,  the,  365,  367,  376, 
386,  398,  403,  404;  formation  of, 
373  374 

"General  History"  (Smith),  158. 


Geneva,  13,  36. 
George  III,  196,  432. 

Glover, (Rev.),  337. 

Glover, ,  printer,  337. 

Goats  brought  to  Plymouth,  255,  257, 

274. 
"Good  News  from  New  England" 

(Winslow),  126. 
Goodman,  John,  235,  236. 
Goodwin,  John  A.,  v,  277,  286,  338, 

426,  433 ;    on  Hopkins,   182 ;    on 

Alden,   183;    on  first  exploration, 

202 ;  on  site  of  settlement,  216 ;  on 

wampum,  275;    on  Indians,  288; 

on  treaty  with  Massasoit,  301 ;  on 

Treat's  funeral,  321. 
Gorges,    Sir   Ferdinando,    190,    191, 

197,  293,  298. 
Gorton,  Samuel,  335. 

Gosnold, ,  189. 

Gospel,  the,  395 ;  to  the  Indians,  288, 

320. 
"Gospellers,"  the,  44. 
Government    of    Plymouth    Colony, 

195-199;  362-378;  402-404;  406, 

431. 
Governor,   office  of,   364,  374,   375, 

377,  428,  430. 
Grady,  Henry  W.,  436. 
Grass,  silk,  207 ;  wild,  244. 
Graves,  206,  233;  Indian,  202. 
Greenleaf,  Thomas,  390. 
Greenwood,  John,  25,  102,  104,  135. 
Griffis,  Dr.  William  Elliot,  v,  8,  67, 

84,  116,  117,  275. 
Grotius,  119. 
Groton,  Mass.,  419. 
Guiana   considered    for    settlement, 

152. 
Guild,'  Curtis,  Jr.,  194. 
Guilds,  tradesmen's,  in  Holland,  139. 

Hadley,  Mass.,  Indians  attack,  419. 
Hale,  Sir  Matthew,  believer  in  witch- 
craft, 382. 
Halifax,  Mass.,  burned,  420. 
Hall,  Jonathan  Prescott,  288. 
Hall,  Pilgrim,  217. 
Hall,  Plumber's,  45. 
Hallam,  Henry,  20. 
Hamden,  John,  313. 
Hampden,  John,  813. 
Hancock,  John,  48. 
Handmaid,  the  ship,  354. 
Hanging,  24,  382,  390,  452. 


474 


INDEX 


Harbor,  207,  231.  See  Plymouth, 
Boston,  etc. 

Harding,  Sewell,  394. 

Hartford,  Conn.,  349,  371. 

Harvard  College,  340,  356,  401,  463. 

Harvest  festival,  the  first,  308. 

Harvests,  the  Pilgrims',  246,  247,  251, 
252,  253,  285,  309. 

Hatchets  traded  to  Indians,  277. 

Hatherly,  Timothy,  179,  281. 

Hawkins, ,  23. 

"Head  and  Heels,"  389. 

Heifers.     See  Cattle. 

Hemans,  Felicia,  194. 

Henry  III  (France),  66. 

Henry  VII,  58,  184. 

Henry  VIII,  19,  20,  23,  33,  34,  38,  59. 

Herrick,  George  M.,  436. 

Herring,  fishing  for,  357. 

Hertfordshire,  Eng.,  35. 

"High  Commission  for  Causes  Ec- 
clesiastical," 22,  23. 

Hildreth,  Richard,  v,  242. 

Hill,  Burial,  Plymouth,  233. 

Hill,  Captain's,  Duxbury,  345. 

Hill,  Coles,  Plymouth,  233. 

Hill,  Study,  Pawtucket,  420. 

Hill,  Watson's,  Plymouth,  301. 

Hinckley,  Gov.  Thomas,  405, 430, 433. 

"History"  (Bradford),  212,  301,  346, 
352. 

" History  of  New  England  "  (Palfrey), 
355. 

"History  of  New  Plymouth"  (Bay- 
lies), 365,  368. 

"History  of  Plymouth"  (Thacher), 
357. 

Hoar,  George  F.,  288,  403. 

Hobomak,  305,  307,  313,  314,  315. 

Holland,  civil  and  religious  liberty  in, 
10,  11,  97;  Anabaptists  in,  10;  ar- 
rival of  exiles  in,  94 ;  an  asylum  for 
the  persecuted,  97 ;  Pilgrims  leave, 
166 ;  immigrants  from,  274. 

Holmes,  ,  charged  with  witch- 
craft, 383. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  170. 

Hooker,  Rev.  Thomas,  347. 

Hooper,  John,  33-35. 

Hopkins,  Giles,  258. 

Hopkins,  Mark,  324. 

Hopkins,  Oceanus,  188,  229. 

Hopkins,  Stephen,  178,  181,  196,  199, 
201, 208, 256, 295 ;  visits  Massasoit, 
302,  308. 


Horace,  24. 

Horses  brought  into  Plymouth  Col- 
ony, 255,  256. 

Hospital,  the  first,  229. 

Hospitality  of  the  Pilgrims,  245,  249, 
280,  295,  296,  301,  309,  343. 

House  of  Correction,  387. 

Houses,  228,  244,  254,  309. 

Howland,  Elizabeth  Tilley  (Mrs. 
John),  258,  354. 

Howland,  John,  166,  187,  208,  255, 
257,  271,  355. 

Hubbard,  - ,  v,  131. 

Huckleberries,  258. 

Hudson, ,  189. 

Hudson  River,  189,  190,  274. 

Huguenots,  the,  in  France,  27. 

Hull,  Eng.,  port  of,  91. 

Humber  River,  91. 

Hunt,  Capt.  Thomas,  292,  297. 

Hunter,  Joseph,  v,  194. 

Hunting,  309;  laws  concerning,  366. 

Huss,  John,  2,  14. 

Hutchinson, ,  v. 

Hyde,  John  Nevins,  52, 

"Hypocricy  Unmasked"  (Winslow), 
126. 

Idle  River,  90,  91. 

Immersion.     See  Baptism. 

Immigration,  245,  248,  251,  272,  454; 
Dutch,  8,  9. 

Immorality  in  Plymouth  Colony, 
453^55. 

Imprisonment,  of  early  Puritans,  24, 
25 ;  of  Browne,  42 ;  of  Separatists, 
54,  55;  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots, 
69;  of  Davison,  70;  of  Scrooby 
Fellowship,  90,  91,  93 ;  of  Winslow, 
126;  of  Brewer,  127;  of  debtors, 
372;  of  Quakers,  389. 

Incorporation  of  towns,  Plymouth 
Colony,  373. 

Indians,  209,  211,  224,  229,  236,  237, 
239,  366,  396;  first  seen  by  Pil- 
grims, 202;  Pilgrims  take  corn  of, 
202,  203,  206,  293,  303,  304,  318; 
Pilgrims  trade  with,  247,  277,  279, 
285,  296,  303;  "First  Encounter" 
with,  210,  292,  293 ;  conflict  with, 
315,  316,  317;  Pilgrims'  relations 
with,  288-322 ;  plague  among,  291, 
295 ;  Hunt's  capture  of,  292,  297, 
298;  welcome  Pilgrims,  294;  visit 
Pilgrims,  296,  297,  300,  308,  310; 


INDEX 


475 


treaty  with,  301,  305,  310;  gospel 
carried  to,  288,  320,  321,  341,  417; 
massacres  by,  293,  326,  419,  420; 
conspire  against  settlers,  311,  312, 
313,  314;  abused  by  Weston's 
colonists,  312;  sold  into  slavery, 
318;  facing  extinction,  412;  popu- 
lation of,  416;  unite  in  Philip's 
War,  417;  Christian  or  "Praying," 
417,  418.     See  Philip's  War. 

Individual  labor,  system  of,  250,  274. 

Indorsers,  financial,  for  the  Pilgrims, 
271. 

Industrial  policy  at  Plymouth,  249, 
253. 

Ingham,  Mrs. ,  alleged  witch,  383. 

"Instances  of  inducement,"  163,  164. 

Interest,  high  rates  of,  265,  269,  270. 

Investment  of  Merchant  Adventurers, 
158,  180. 

Ipswich,  Mass.,  208,  338.  See 
Agawam. 

Islington,  Separatist  meetings  at,  54. 

Jackson,  Richard,  80. 

Jacob,  Henry,  102. 

Jacob,  the  ship,  254. 

James  I,  66,  124,  154,  155,  363;  pro- 
tests Separatist  printing  in  Holland, 
127;  refuses  religious  freedom  in 
America,  156;  witchcraft  persecu- 
tion under,  382. 

James  II,  426,  427. 

Jamestown,  Va.,  233. 

Jenney,  John,  272,  283. 

Jennings, ,  123. 

Jenny.    See  Jenney. 

Jessop,  Francis,  80,  123. 

John,  King  (Eng.),  58. 

"John  Robinson"  (Davis),  137. 

Johnson,  Capt. ,  420. 

Johnson,  Francis,  141,  173;  in  Lon- 
don, 54;  in  Amsterdam,  101; 
career  of,  104,  105. 

Jones,  Capt. ,  190,  219,  224,  238; 

alleged  bribery  of,  197,  290 ;  heads 
expedition,  204-206;  practises  ex- 
tortion, 247. 

Jones  River,  224. 

Jury,  trial  by,  363,  365. 

"Just  and  Necessary  Apology  "  (Rob- 
inson), 137. 

"Justification  of  Separatism  from  the 
Church  of  England"  (Robinson), 
137. 


Keith, (Rev.),  350. 

Kennebec    River,   trading-posts    on, 

277,  279,  284. 
Kettle,    found   on   first   exploration, 

202. 
Killigrew,  Sir  Henry,  66. 
King,  John,  bishop  of  London,  156. 
King's  Bench  Prison,  127. 
Kingston,  Mass.,  224,  225,  226. 
Kloksteeg,  the,  Leyden,  120. 
Knives,  247,  277,  297. 
Knox,  John,  7. 

Lady  Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity. 
See  Thomas  Cartwright. 

Lambs.    See  Live  stock. 

Lancaster,  Mass.,  Indians  attack, 
419. 

Land,  division  and  allotment  of,  160, 
250,  273;  grant  to  Allerton,  279; 
dealings  with  Indians,  288,  319, 
320;  titles,  428. 

Landing,  first,  at  Cape  Cod,  200 ;  at 
Clark's  Island,  211;  at  Plymouth 
Rock,  216,  223. 

Langemore, ,  servant,  178. 

Lathrop,  Capt. ,  420. 

Latimer,  7,  34. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  126,  339,  348. 

"Lawfulness  of  Plantations"  (Cush- 
man),  319. 

Laws,  English,  89,  363,  365,  366,  370, 
429. 

Laws,  Plymouth  Colony,  195,  362- 
378,  429,  438,  459,  462,  463;  on 
school  question,  356,  357 ;  trial  by 
jury,  363;  administration  of,  364; 
no  code  of,  365,  366;  code  of, 
adopted,  367 ;  declaration  of  rights, 
368;  penal,  370;  civil,  373;  on 
voting,  376 ;  on  holding  office,  377 ; 
against  Quakers,  385-387;  on 
treatment  of  Indians,  321,  366, 
396.  See  Government  of  Plymouth 
Colony. 

Lecky,  W.  E.  H.,  on  witchcraft,  380. 

Leddra, ,  Quaker,  389. 

Lee, ,  123. 

Lee,  Rev.  Samuel,  349. 

Legislation.     See  Laws. 

Leo  X,  Pope,  33. 

Letter,  Robinson's  farewell,  173. 

"Letter  Book"  (Bradford),  158. 

Letter  of  de  Rassiere  to  Bradford, 
274. 


476 


INDEX 


Letters,  244,  265,  268,  329,  388;  in- 
tercepted, 332. 

Leyden,  114-143;  memorial  to  Rob- 
inson at,  94,  118;  history  of ,  117; 
museum  and  art  in,  118;  univer- 
sity, 119;  exiles'  meeting-house  in, 
120,  121;  printing  in,  134;  theo- 
logical debate  in,  135;  Congrega- 
tionalism at,  142;  departure  of 
Pilgrims  from,  166,  167. 

Leyden  church,  325,  326 ;  the  "Seven 
Articles,"  162 ;  government  formu- 
lated, 140-143. 

Leyden  fellowship,  114-143;  their 
meeting-house,  120,  121 ;  voca- 
tions of,  122,  139;  accessions  to, 
124-133;  marriages  among,  138, 
139;  become  citizens,  139;  formu- 
late church  polity,  140-143;  con- 
template removal  from  Leyden, 
148;  reasons  for  leaving  Leyden, 
149-151;  decide  on  Virginia,  153; 
their  petition  refused,  156 ;  receive 
patent,  156 ;  refuse  Dutch  offers  of 
aid,  157;  their  "articles  of  agree- 
ment," 159;  secure  ships,  162; 
hold  religious  services  before  de- 
parture, 166;  leave  Leyden,  167. 
See  Scrooby  fellowship,  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  and  Plymouth  colonists. 

Leyden  Street,  Plymouth,  228. 

Leyden  University,  114,  119,  126, 
127   135. 

"Life'of  Brewster"  (Steele),  65. 

Liquor.     See  "Strong  water." 

Lister,  Edward,  178,  371. 

Literature,  beginning  of  American, 
129. 

Little,  Rev.  Ephraim,  344. 

Little  James,  the  ship,  251,  256,  272, 
354;  captured,  268. 

Live  stock  in  Plymouth,  254-257; 
division  of,  255,  274. 

Lobsters,  251,  258. 

Lochleven,  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots, 
imprisoned  at,  69. 

Lollards,  the,  in  England,  5. 

London,  9,  25 ;  Separatist  church  in, 
54;  Congregationalists  in,  44-46. 

London  Separatists  in  Holland,  101. 

London  Virginia  Company,  154,  196 ; 
Pilgrims  negotiate  with,  155; 
grants  patent  to  Pilgrims,  156. 

Long,  John  D.,  194. 

Long  Point,  Cape  Cod,  192,  209. 


Longevity  of  Pilgrims,  258. 

Longfellow,  Henry  Wadsworth,  18, 
131,  380. 

Lothrop, (Rev.),  349. 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  11,  32,  222, 
240. 

Lucas,  E.  V.,  114. 

Luther,  Martin,  2,  9,  14,  33. 

Lutherism  vs.  Calvinism,  140. 

Lyford,  Rev.  John,  329-333,  455; 
servility  and  deception  of,  330; 
conspires  with  Oldam,  331 ;  ban- 
ished, 332 ;  not  pastor  of  Plymouth 
church,  334. 

Macaulay,  Thomas  Babington,  18. 
Mackennal,  Dr.  Alexander,  v,  6,  45, 

52;  on  Browne,  41,  43. 
Mackerel,  fishing  for,  357. 
Magistrates,  336,  363,  365. 
"Magna  Charta,"  14. 
Maize,  202,  216.     See  Corn. 
Majority  rule  in  Plymouth,  363,  364. 
Mallards,  295,  296.     See  Ducks. 
Manhattan,  Dutch  at,  274,  284,  382. 
Mann,  Horace,  on  schools,  352. 
Manomet,  trading-house  at,  276. 
Manor    house,    Scrooby,    refuge    of 

Separatists,  58-62. 
Mansfield,  Lord,  believer  in  witch- 
craft, 382. 
Manual  of  arms,  drill  in,  309. 
Margaret,  Queen  (Scotland),  58. 
Marlborough,  Mass.,  destruction  of, 

419. 
Marriages  among  Leyden  fellowship, 

138,  139. 

Marshall,  Capt. ,  420. 

Marshfield,    Mass.,    283,    345,    356, 

373. 
Martha's  Vineyard,  missionaries  in, 

417. 
Martin,  Christopher,  178-180. 
Martyrs,  early  church,  25. 
Marvell,  Andrew,  99. 
Mary,   Queen    (wife  of  William   of 

Orange),  434. 
Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of  Scots,  69,  70, 

71. 
Mary     Tudor,     Queen      ("Bloody 

Mary"),  20,  23,  24,  329. 
Maryland,  witchcraft  a  capital  crime 

in,  382. 
Massachusetts    Bay    Colony,    trades 

with  Plymouth,  257;  ministers  of, 


INDEX 


477 


334,  336,  338,  340,  347 ;  schools  in, 
340,  356,  358,  359,  401,  463 ;  capi- 
tal offenses  in,  370;  witchcraft  in, 
382;  Quakers  in,  386,  387,  389, 
390,  391;  population  of,  395;  in 
confederation  of  colonies,  395,  397, 
398,  401,  403,  405,  407;  military 
quota  of,  397,  398 ;  disputes  boun- 
dary with  Plymouth,  399,  400; 
early  form  of  government  in,  375; 
in  Philip's  War,  410,  414,  416,  417, 
418,  419,  420;  under  Andros,  428; 
reseats  Gov.  Bradstreet,  430; 
charter,  428,  432 ;  Puritans  of, 
compared  with  Pilgrims,  462-465. 

Massachusetts  Confederacy  (Indian), 
291,  306,  311. 

Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  214. 

Massacres,  Indian,  293,  326,  419, 
420. 

Massasoit,  297,  299,  304,  305,  311, 
315,  319,  413;  visits  Pilgrims,  300, 
308,  310;  Pilgrims  visit,  302,  313; 
plot  against,  306. 

Masterson, ,  123. 

Mather,  Cotton,  on  Bradford,  74. 

Mather,  Increase,  432. 

Mather,  Richard,  348. 

Mats,  Indian,  found  on  Cape  Cod, 
207. 

Mayflower,  the  ship,  vi,  180,  218,  219, 
223,  229,  230,  255,  265,  294,  354, 
404 ;  hired,  162 ;  at  Southampton, 
171;  sails  from  England,  177; 
description  of,  183-185;  number 
on  board  of,  185,  188;  arrives  at 
Cape  Cod,  192;  returns  to  Eng- 
land, 238-240,  243. 

Mayflower  Compact,  the,  195-199, 
215,  364,  367,  375,  464;  text  of, 
197. 

"  Mayflower,  The  —  Her  Log," 
(Ames),  179. 

Mayhews,  the,  missionaries  to  In- 
dians, 417. 

McKenzie,  Alexander,  114. 

Meadows  held  in  common  by  Pil- 
grims, 273. 

Meal,  scarcity  of,  244,  245. 

Medfield,  Mass.,  Indians  attack,  419. 

Medici,  Catherine  de,  66. 

Meeting-house,  326,  338. 

Meetings,  conference  and  prayer, 
344 ;  town,  428. 

Melanchthon,  2. 


Memorial,  to  Robinson,  94,  118;  on 
Clark's  Island,  214;  to  Cotton, 
342. 

Men,  number  of,  in  Pilgrim  com- 
pany, 185,  243. 

Mendon,  Mass.,  abandonment  of, 
419. 

Merchant  Adventurers,  128,  157, 
158,  244,  282,  283;  articles  of 
agreement  with,  159,  161,  264; 
debt  of  Pilgrims  to,  262-286;  de- 
lay in  remittances  to,  265;  new 
agreement  with,  268;  Standish, 
Allerton,  and  Winslow  negotiate 
with,  268,  269 ;  Allerton's  partner- 
ship with,  279;  conspire  against 
Robinson,  329,  331 ;  conspire 
against  Pilgrim  democracy,  331. 

Middleborough,  Mass.,  305,  419, 
420.     See  Namasket. 

Middleburg,  Zealand,  39,  42. 

Military  duty,  laws  concerning,  366. 

Military  quota  of  colonies,  397,  398. 

Milk.     See  Dairy  products. 

Mill,  grist,  built  by  John  Jenney, 
283. 

Milton,  John,  9,  18. 

Ministers,  early  New  England,  327, 
330-344,  347-350. 

Ministry,  ordination  to  the,  163. 

Missionaries  to  the  Indians,  417. 

Mitchell, ,  345. 

Mohawk  River,  Dutch  on  the,  274. 

Mohegans,  the,  410. 

Mollusks,  chief  source  of  food 
supply,  247. 

Monhegan,  Me.,  goats  from,  257. 

Monomoy,  191,  299.    See  Chatham. 

Monopoly,  trade,  given  to  financial 
indorsers,  273. 

Monumet  River.     See  Manomet. 

Moore,  Jasper,  218. 

"Morning  Star  of  the  Reformation." 
See  Wycliffe. 

Morton, ,  123. 

Morton,  John,  v,  356. 

Morton,  Nathaniel,  v,  184,  190,  285, 
356,  401. 

Motley,  John  Lothrop,  96. 

Mounds,  Indian,  on  Cape  Cod,  202, 
206. 

"Mourt's  Relation,"  201,  212,  230, 
298. 

Mowry,  William  A.,  on  schools,  352. 

Mullins,  Joseph,  180. 


478 


INDEX 


Mullins,  Priscilla,  180. 
Mullins,  William,  179,  180. 
Murder,  178,  370,  452. 
Museum,  Leyden,  118. 
Muskets,  173,  414. 
Mystics,  Pilgrims  not,  447,  448. 

Naarden,  Holland,  Separatists  in, 
101. 

Namasket,  305.  See  Middlebor- 
ough. 

Nantasket,  Mass.,  334. 

Nantucket,  missionaries  at,  417. 

Narragansett  Bay,  291,  300. 

Narragansetts,  the,  291,  302,  305, 
306,  311,  417,  419,  422. 

Nature,  crimes  against,  370. 

Naunton,  Sir  Robert,  155. 

Nauset,  292,  304.    See  Eastham. 

Nausites,  the,  292,  297,  298,  304,  305, 
418. 

Neal,  Daniel,  v,  2. 

Negro  Head,  Cape  Cod,  202. 

Neponsits,  the,  411. 

Netherlands,  the,  religious  contro- 
versies in,  27.    See  Holland. 

Nets,  fishing,  357. 

Neville,  Gervase,  80. 

New  England,  188,  235,  317;  first 
printed  discourse  in,  129;  first 
child  born  in,  188 ;  first  landing  of 
Pilgrims  in,  200;  early  explorers 
of,  218 ;  first  free  school  in,  357. 

New  England  Confederation.  See 
United  Colonies  of  New  England. 

"New  England  History"  (Elliott), 
413. 

"New  England  Memorial"  (Mor- 
ton), 184,  190,  401. 

New  Haven,  Conn.,  347,  349,  370, 
395,  397,  398,  404. 

New  Plymouth,  218,  228.  See 
Plymouth. 

New  York,  284,  387. 

Newcomen,  John,  killed  by  Billing- 
ton,  178. 

Newfoundland  Company,  the,  298. 

Newman,  — — •  (Rev.),  349. 

Newgate,  prison,  25,  55. 

Newport,  Capt. ,  233. 

Nipmucks,  the,  417,  418,  422. 

Non-conformists,  8,  23,  46,  86,  87, 
89. 

Non-conformity,  3,  23. 

"Nook,"  Brewster's,  345. 


Norfolk,  Eng.,  Separatism  in,  6. 

Northampton,  Eng.,  40. 

Northfield,  Mass.,  Indians  attack, 
419. 

Norton,  Humphrey,  387. 

Norton,  John,  337. 

Norwich,  Eng.,  9,  39,  44,  46. 

Nuts,  ground,  a  source  of  food  sup- 
ply, 248. 

Old  Colony.    See  Plymouth  Colony. 

Old  Colony  church,  53. 

Oldam,  John,  331,  332. 

Orange,    Prince    of,    25,    426.     See 

William  III. 
Orchards,  at  Plymouth,  258. 
Otis,  James,  178. 
Otter,  266,  285. 
Oxford,  Council  of,  32. 

Paine,  Robert  Treat,  321. 

Palfrey,  John  G.,  v,  194,  288,  321, 
355,  382,  413. 

Pamet  River,  Cape  Cod,  202,  205, 
207,  208,  209. 

Papacy,  revolt  from,  26. 

Parkman,  Francis,  233. 

Parliament,  the  English,  20,  55. 

Parthenon,  the,  24. 

Partridge,  Ralph  (Rev.),  348. 

Patent,  Pilgrims  attempt  to  secure  a, 
155;  granted  by  London  Virginia 
Company,  156;  to  Pierce,  196, 
197;  to  Bradford,  277,  367;  the 
Warrick,  278. 

Patuxet,  295.    See  Plymouth. 

Patuxets,  the,  216,  291,  297,  300, 
319. 

Pawtucket,  R.  I.,  420. 

Pecksuot,  killed,  316. 

Peirce,  Capt.  Michael,  420,  421. 

Penalty,  the  death,  370,  387. 

Penalties.  See  Banishment,  Fines, 
Imprisonment,  Punishments,  Ty- 
ing up,  and  Whipping. 

Penn,  William,  301,  371,  384. 

Pennsylvania,  witchcraft  in,  382,  383. 

Penobscot  River,  trading-posts  on, 
279,  284. 

Penry, ,  martyr,  25,  102. 

Pequod  War,  the,  411. 

Pequods,  the,  291. 

Perkins,  Rev.  William,  76. 

Persecution,  of  Separatists,  19-29 ;  of 
Scrooby    fellowship,    87-93;    the 


INDEX 


479 


witchcraft,  381-383;  of  Quakers, 
383—391. 

"Perth  Assembly"  (Calderwood), 
127. 

Petition,  to  Leyden  burgomasters, 
112;  to  Elizabeth,  153 ;  to  James  I, 
153. 

Philip  (chief),  320, 410, 418, 419, 422; 
character  of,  410,  413-115. 

Philip  II  (Spain),  9,  25,  96. 

Philip's  War,  288,  401,  405,  411-423; 
causes  of,  412;  course  of,  419; 
losses  in,  421,  422 ;  debt  of,  423. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  48. 

Phipps,  Gov.  William,  432 

Pickering, ,  123. 

Pierce,  John,  196,  367. 

Pierpont,  John,  52. 

Pierson, (Quaker)  389. 

Pilgrim,  the,  3,  8,  11,  12,  29. 

"Pilgrim  Fathers,"  church  of,  Am- 
sterdam, 102. 

Pilgrim  Fathers,  leave  Holland,  166; 
arrival  at  Southampton,  171;  re- 
fuse to  ratify  articles  of  agreement, 
172;  leave  England,  175;  acces- 
sions to,  at  Southampton,  177,  196 ; 
number  of,  185,  188,  229;  their 
voyage,  186,  187 ;  sight  Cape  Cod, 
188;  compact  of,  195;  land  on 
Cape  Cod,  200;  explorations,  201, 
204,  208;  land  of  Plymouth,  217; 
health  and  longevity  of,  258.  See 
Leyden  fellowship,  Scrooby  fellow- 
ship, and  Plymouth  colonists. 

"Pilgrim  Fathers  of  New  England, 
The"  (Brown),  41. 

Pilgrim  Hall,  Plymouth,  217. 

"Pilgrim  Press,  The,"  127,  134. 

"Pilgrim Republic, The"  (Goodwin), 
301. 

"Pilgrims,  The"  (Bancroft),  22. 

"Pilgrims  In  Their  Three  Homes" 
(Griffis),  61. 

Pinnace,  Pilgrims  build  a,  276. 

Pioneers,  the  Puritan,  32-49. 

Piscataqua  River,  trading-post  on, 
277. 

Plague,  in  England,  269 ;  among  the 
Indians,  291,  295. 

Planting,  244,  250,  285. 

Platform,  the  Cambridge,  348. 

Platform,  used  as  fort,  228. 

Plumber's  Hall,  Separatists  in,  45. 

Plymouth,  Eng.,  177. 


Plymouth,  Mass.,  218,  225,  226,  228, 
346,  367,  373. 

Plymouth  Bay,  216,  226. 

Plymouth  Church,  the,  325, 326 ;  first 
meeting-house  of,  326,  338;  early 
ministers  of,  327-342;  conspiracy 
against,  331 ;  prayer  and  confer- 
ence meetings  in,  344;  extension 
of,  344. 

Plymouth  colonists,  begin  building, 
226;  sickness  ravages,  229-233; 
Rufus  Choate  on,  234 ;  number  of, 
243 ;  troubles  and  hardships,  235- 
238,  244-252;  accessions  to,  245, 
248,  251,  267,  272,  280,  282;  com- 
munism of,  249 ;  accept  new  agree- 
ment with  Merchant  Adventurers, 
270;  pay  off  debt  to  Adventurers, 
285 ;  their  relations  with  the  Indi- 
ans, 287-322;  their  schools,  352- 
359 ;  their  religion,  438-465 ;  See 
Scrooby  fellowship,  Leyden  fellow- 
ship, and  Pilgrim  Fathers. 

Plymouth  Colony,  communistic  sys- 
tem in,  259 ;  live  stock  in,  254-257 ; 
trades  with  Bay  Colony,  257 ;  boun- 
daries of,  defined,  277,  399 ;  towns 
in,  373 ;  joins  confederation  of  colo- 
nies, 395;  laws  and  legislation  in, 
362-378;  merged  with  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  Colony,  342,  348,  398, 
404,  433;  in  Philip's  War,  401, 
411-423;  witches  and  Quakers  in, 
380-391 ;  under  Andros,  428. 

Plymouth  Harbor,  209,  216,  223, 
238. 

Plymouth  Rock,  vi,  195, 217, 240, 390. 

Plymouth  Virginia  Company,  154, 
197.   See  Council  for  New  England. 

Plymton,  Mass.,  342. 

Pneumonia,  231. 

Pocassets,  the,  305. 

Pokanoket  Confederacy,  the,  301, 
305,  311. 

Pokanokets,  the,  300,  303,  413. 

Poliander,  Prof. ,  135. 

Pond,  Fresh  Water,  202. 

Pontgrave, ,  185. 

"Popular  Delusions "(Mackey),  382. 

Population,  Dutch  in  England,  9. 

Population  of  N.  E.  colonies,  white, 
395,  416;  Indian,  416. 

Population  of  Plymouth  Colony,  229, 
245,  248,  251,  272,  346. 

Postmaster  at  Scrooby,  70. 


480 


INDEX 


Potatoes,  254. 

Poultry  Counter,  the,  prison,  55. 

Prayer  for  rain,  252 ;  Pilgrims  believe 

in  efficacy  of,  442. 
Prayer-meetings,  344. 
"Praying"   Indians.     See   Christian 

Indians. 
Prence,  Gov.  Thomas,  170,  271,  388, 

398,  405. 
Prince, -Thomas,  v,  170.    See  Prence. 
Printing,  in  Holland,  127,  134. 
Prison,  the  first  in  Plymouth,  278. 
Prisoners,  selling  of  Indian,  318. 
Prisons.    See  Fleet,  Clink,  Newgate, 

etc. 
Proclamation,     Thanksgiving    Day, 

309. 
Protestantism,  6,  140,  150. 
Protestants,  22,  24,  25,  27. 
Provincetown,  Mass.,  192,  202. 
Provisions,  scarcity  of,  245,  246. 

Prower, (servant),  178. 

Psalm-book  (Ainsworth's),  108,  329. 
Punishments,  370,  371,  386,  387. 
Puritanism,  3,  14. 
Puritans,  the,  3,  6,  8,  33,  88, 173,  396, 

463. 
"Pursuants,"  87,  97. 

QUADEQUTNA,  300. 

Quakerism,  appears  in  the  colonies, 
381.    See  Quakers. 

Quakers,  the,  283,  380-391;  fanati- 
cism among,  384;  legislation 
against,  385,  386,  387 ;  persecution 
of,  ends,  390. 

Quebec,  Champlain  at,  233. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  23,  56,  152. 

Rape,  the  crime  of,  370. 

Rassieres,  Isaac  de,  274,  275. 

Ratcliffe,  Separatists  at,  54. 

Rationalists,  Pilgrims  not,  448. 

Rattlesnake  skin  challenge,  the,  311. 

Rayner,  John  (Rev.),  338,  348. 

Recreations,  at  Plymouth,  309. 

Reformation,  the,  in  Germany,  2 ;  in 
England,  19-22. 

Rehoboth,  Mass.,  349,  399,  420. 

Reid,  Whitelaw,  on  schools,  352. 

Religious  attitude  of  the  Pilgrims, 
438-450. 

"  Religious  Communion "  (Robin- 
son), 137. 

Rembrandt,  118.    .. 


Remittances  to  Merchant  Adven- 
turers, delay  in,  265 ;  the  first,  266 ; 
the  second,  267 ;   others,  267,  268. 

Reorganization,  political  and  finan- 
cial, in  Plymouth  Colony,  272,  273. 

Representatives.     See  Deputies. 

Reynolds,  Capt. ,  175,  176. 

Rheumatism,  common  among  Pil- 
grims, 231. 

Rhode  Island,  382. 

Ridley,  34. 

Robbing  the  Indians,  202,  203,  206, 
293,  303,  304,  318. 

Robinson,  Isaac,  283,  285,  391. 

Robinson,  John  (Rev.),  v,  75-80,  124, 
125,  127,  129,  132,  133,  142,  160, 
165,  166,  326,  327,  328,  329,  440, 
446;  at  Cambridge,  at  Norwich, 
takes  orders,  76;  becomes  a  Sep- 
aratist, 78;  withdraws  from  State 
Church,  77;  pastor  of  Scrooby 
Church,  78,  79;  memorials  to,  94, 
118;  atLeyden,  109,  120;  in  great 
debate,  135 ;  his  writings,  137 ;  his 
intellectual  activities,  138;  formu- 
lates church  polity,  142 ;  on  "  ar- 
ticles of  agreement,"  160;  "Seven 
Articles,"  163;  "instances  of  in- 
ducement," 163;  preaches  before 
departure  of  Pilgrims  from  Leyden, 
166;  his  letter  of  farewell,  173, 
446 ;  on  killing  of  Indians,  133,  316. 

Rochester,  Robert,  80. 

Rogers, ,  34. 

Rogers, (Rev.),  333,  334,  455. 

Rogers,  J.  E.  T.,  96. 

Rogers,  J.  Guinness,  on  Separatists, 
32. 

Roman  Catholics,  26,  27. 

Rome,  13,24;    See  of,  22. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  on  schools,  352. 

Rose, ,  44,  54. 

Rough,  John,  44,  45,  54. 

Rouse,  John,  387. 

Rowlandson,  Mrs. ,  419. 

Rugs,  277. 

Rye,  a  staple  of  living,  258. 

Sabbath  observance,  201,  204,  212- 

216,  224,  296,  443. 
Saco  River,  291. 
Sacraments,    administration    of   the, 

328,  335,  343. 
Saint  Croix  River,  233,  234. 
Saint  Helen's  Church,  72. 


INDEX 


481 


Saint  John's  College,  Cambridge, 
108. 

Saint  Peter's  Church,  117,  120. 

Saint  Ursula  Street,  Leyden,  120. 

Salaries  of  deputies,  374. 

Salem,  Mass.,  256,  280,  336. 

Samoset,  181,  294-297. 

Sampson,  Henry,  258,  345. 

Sandwich,  Mass.,  346,  373. 

Sandys,  Sir  Edwin,  59,  155,  163,  164. 

Santa  Maria,  the  ship,  184. 

Scaliger,  119. 

"Scarlet  Letter,"  the,  372. 

Schools,  Plymouth  Colony,  353-359; 
legislation  concerning,  356;  first 
common,  356,  357;  support  of, 
357 ;  encouraged  by  union  of  colo- 
nies, 400. 

Scituate,  Mass.,  282,  340,  346,  367, 
373,  383,  405,  420,  421. 

Screw  used  to  repair  the  Mayflower, 
186. 

Scriptures,  the.  See  Bible  and  Tes- 
taments. 

Scrooby,  Eng.,  53,  56,  57,  58,  61,  62. 

Scrooby  Church,  53,  58,  60,  325; 
leaders  of,  62-80;  Clyfton  first 
pastor  of,  63 ;  Robinson  pastor  of, 
78,  79. 

Scrooby  fellowship,  members  of,  62- 
80;  character  of,  81,  85;  persecu- 
tion of,  87 ;  resolve  to  emigrate,  88 ; 
hindrances  to  emigration  of,  89; 
fail  to  leave  England  as  a  body,  90, 
92;  arrival  in  Holland,  94;  at 
Amsterdam,  97  seq.;  their  reasons 
for  leaving  Amsterdam,  102,  110; 
petition  to  settle  in  Leyden,  112. 
See  Leyden  fellowship,  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  and  Plymouth  colonists. 

Scurvy,  prevalent  among  Pilgrims, 
231,  233. 

Scusset  River,  276. 

Se-Baptist,  Smyth  a,  107. 

Sea  food,  Pilgrims  depend  on,  216, 
258. 

Seed,  206,  207,  244. 

Seekonk,  Mass.,  399. 

Seeley,  John  Robert,  436. 

Seines  used  for  fishing,  357. 

Selectmen  of  towns  in  Plymouth  Col- 
ony, 377. 

Self-government,  198,  199,  363,  402- 
404  406  434. 

"  Self-Love  "  (Cushman),  129. 


Separatism,  3,  6,  28,  46,  54. 
Separatist  Church,  Scrooby,  58,  62. 
Separatists,  8,  26,  54,  89,  98,  101,  102, 

103,  110,  111. 
"Sermon  on  the  Mount,"  the,  84. 
Servants,  180,  454. 
"Seven  Articles,"  the,  162,  163. 
Shallop,  repairing  of  the  Mayflower's, 

201,  204,  209. 
Shares,  apportionment  of,  159,  264. 
Sheep  brought  to  Plymouth,  255,  257. 
Shell-fish,  a  staple  of  living,  247,  248. 
Sherley.     See  Shirley. 
Ship-building,  the  first,  283. 
Ships.     See    Mayflower,     Speedwell, 

etc. 

Shirley, ,  254,  281. 

Sickness,  at  sea,  188;   at  Cape  Cod, 

218,  219;   at  Plymouth,  180,  229- 

235,    239,   247;    at   Boston,    257; 

among  Indians,  291 ;   among  early 

explorers,  233. 
Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  23,  25. 
Sipican,  lands  at,  357. 
Skins,  296.    See  Furs,  Beaver,  Otter, 

etc. 
Slander,  charges  of,  371,  372,  383. 
Slaney,  John,  298. 
Slaves,  Indian,  292,  298,  318,  319. 
Smith,  Goldwin,  on  Mayflower  Com- 
pact, 198. 
Smith,  Capt.,  John,  189,  218,  254. 
Smith,  Ralph  (Rev.),  334-336,  343; 

first  pastor  of  Plymouth  Church, 

335. 
Smyth,  John,  76,  102,  106-108. 
Snow,  204,  205. 
"So-and-So,"  Captain,  aids  Pilgrims, 

246. 
Society  of  Friends,  384.    See  Quakers. 
Somersetshire,  Eng.,  33. 
Soule,  George,  199,  258,  345. 
Southampton,  Eng.,  171,  173,  175. 
South wark.     See  London. 
South  wick,  Cassandra,  389. 
South  wick,  Lawrence,  389. 
South  worth,  Constant,  285. 
Southworth,  Thomas,  123,  285,  398. 
Sowams,    300,    302,    303,    308.    See 

Warren,  R.  I. 
Speedwell,  the  ship,   162,   168,   183, 

184;    number  on  board  of,   166; 

springs    a    leak,  175,  176;    aban- 
doned, 177. 
Spencer,  23. 


31 


482 


INDEX 


Sports,  other  Pilgrims',  309. 

Springfield,  Mass.,  Indians  attack, 
419. 

Springs  of  water  found  on  Cape  Cod, 
203. 

Squanto,  181,  297-300,  301,  302,  305, 
306,  307,  313. 

"St."     See  Saint. 

Standish,  Alexander,  132. 

Standish,  Capt.  Miles,  124,  130-133, 
166,  208,  217,  232,  256,  257,  258, 
265,  271,  293,  301,  306,  309,  345, 
371,  411;  leads  first  exploration, 
201;  visits  England,  269;  leads 
expedition  to  Corbitant,  308 ;  leads 
expedition  against  Indians,  315. 

Statutes,  365,  366. 

Staves,  183,  266. 

Steele, ,  v,  65. 

Steen,  Jan,  118. 

Stocks  for  culprits,  371. 

"Story  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers" 
(Arber),  26. 

Street,  Nicholas  (Rev.),  349. 

Streets.    See  Leyden,  St.  Ursula,  etc. 

"Strong  water,"  295,  296,  301. 

"Study  Hill,"  420. 

Sudbury,  Mass.,  Indians  attack,  420. 

Suffolk,  Eng.,  Separatism  in,  6. 

Surgeon.     See  Samuel  Fuller. 

Swan,  the  ship,  299. 

Swansea,  Mass.,  285,  415,  419. 

Swine,  brought  to  Plymouth  Colony, 
254,  255,  274. 

Sylvester, ,  383. 

Taunton,  Mass.,  346,  349,  S73,  419, 

421. 
Taxes  fixed  by  governor,  429. 

Taylor, ,  34. 

Testaments,  25,  43,  440,  441,  444, 

445. 

Thacher, ,  v,  256,  338,  357,  433. 

Thacker,  Elias,  25. 
Thanksgiving  Day,  308,  309,  310. 
"Thievish  Harbor,"  209. 
"Thirty-Nine  Articles,"  the,  22. 
Thirty  Years'  War,  the,  150. 
Thomas,  William,  179,  283. 
Thompson,  Edward,  218. 
Tilley,  Edward,  201,  208,  209. 
Tilley,  Elizabeth,  187. 
Tilley,  John,  208. 
Timber,  cut  for  building,  228. 
Titles,  land,  319,  428. 


Tobacco,  found  in  Indian  mounds, 

207. 
Tools  taken  by  the  Indians,  293,  296. 
Torture,  289,  381. 
Tower  of  London,  Rose  imprisoned 

in,  44. 
Town-meetings,  428. 
Towns  in  Plymouth  Colony,  373, 395, 

410 ;  attacked  by  Indians,  419^-22. 
Trade,  285 ;  monopoly  of,  273 ;  with 

Indians,  247,  273,  277,  279,  456; 

with  Bay  Colony,  257 ;   with  Man- 
hattan,  274,    284;    expansion   of, 

276;    on  the  Kennebec,  277;    on 

the  Penobscot,  279,  284. 
Trading-house,  at  Manomet,  276 ;  on 

the  Kennebec,  277,  279,  284;    on 

the  Penobscot,  279,  284. 
Trap,  deer-,  Indian  Bradford  caught 

in,  203. 
Treason,  a  capital  crime,  370. 
Treasurer,  179,  183,  375. 
Treat,  Gov.    Robert    (Conn.),    320, 

430. 
Treat,  Samuel  (Rev.),  320,  348. 
Treaty  with  Massasoit,  301. 

Trevor, ,  sailor,  178. 

Trousers,  Irish,  296. 
Trowbridge,  Rev.  J.  P.,  170. 
Trumbull,  J.  Hammond,  362,  370, 

382. 
Turkeys,  wild,  244,  258. 

Turner,  Capt. ,  420. 

Turner's  Falls,  Mass.,  420. 
Tyburn,  prison,  25. 
"Tying  up"  culprits,  371,  389. 
Tyndale,  6,  7,  8. 

Underhill, ,  343. 

United   Colonies  of  New   England, 

386,  395,  397,  398. 
University.     See  Leyden. 
Upsall,  Nicholas,  387. 

Venison,  258.    See  Deer. 

Veto,  the  popular,  375. 

Vices,  social,  453,  454,  455. 

Virginia,  153,  233,  326,  370,  382,  387. 

Virginia  companies,  154.  See  Coun- 
cil for  N.  E.,  London  Virginia 
Company,  and  Plymouth  Virginia 
Company. 

Vocations  of  Pilgrims  in  Leyden,  122. 

Voting,  376. 

Voyage,  the  Mayflower's,  186  seq. 


INDEX 


483 


Wadsworth,  Capt. ,  420. 

Walker,  Williston,  9 ;  on  Anabaptists, 
10. 

Walloons,  9. 

Wampanoags,  the,  288,  300,  417,  422. 

Wampum,  275,  277,  279. 

War-footing  of  United  Colonies,  397, 
398. 

Warren,  R.  I.,  300,  303.    See  Sowtans. 

Warren,  Richard,  208. 

Warrick,  Earl  of,  277. 

Warrick  patent,  the,  277,  278. 

Washing  clothes  at  Provincetown, 
201. 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  18. 

Washington,  George,  on  schools,  352. 

Water,  drinking,  203,  208,  216,  224, 
225,  254. 

Watson's  Hill,  301. 

Waymouth, ,  189. 

Webster,  Daniel,  436. 

Wellfleet  Bay,  209,  210. 

Wessagusset,  133,  312,  317,  411.  See 
Weymouth. 

West  Tower,  118. 

Westminster,  21. 

Weston,  Thomas,  157,  158,  159,  161, 
162,  179,  249,  265 ;  at  Southamp- 
ton, 172 ;  his  colony  at  Weymouth, 
247  249  312. 

Weymouth,  Capt.  George,  298. 

Weymouth,  Mass.,  315;  destitution 
of  Weston's  people  at,  247,  312, 
317 ;  abuse  of  Indians  at,  312.  See 
WTessagusset. 

Wharf,  the  first  at  Plymouth,  181. 

Wheat,  Pilgrims  raise,  244,  258. 

Whipping,  372,  386,  388,  389. 

Whipping-post,  371. 

White,  Peregrine,  188,  229,  345. 

White,  Resolved,  258. 

White,  William,  180. 

White  Lion,  prison,  55. 

Whitgift, ,  22,  37. 

Whittier,  John  G.,  32,  384. 

Wigwams,  Indian,  206. 

Willet,  Thomas,  279,  284. 

William  III  (prince  of  Orange),  426. 

Williams,  Roger,  72,  336,  337,  343, 
347,  465... 

Wills,  probate  of,  366. 


Wilson, ,  123. 

Wilson,  John  (Rev.),  336,  343,  347. 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  242. 

Winslow,  Gov.  Edward  (Pilgrim),  v, 
124,  125,  126,  130,  146,  162,  166, 
199,  208,  237,  242,  246,  271,  277, 
288,  301,  330,  354,  403,  405;  on 
leaving  Holland,  168;  visits  Eng- 
land, 254,  268,  337 ;  visits  Massa- 
soit,  302,  308,  313;  on  Thanks- 
giving Day,  309;  on  Indians,  310; 
on  Indian  conspiracy,  315;  re- 
moves to  Marshfield,  345. 

Winslow,  Gov.  Josiah,  288,  354,  398, 
405;  on  purchases  of  land  from 
Indians,  320. 

Winslow,  Susana  White  (2d  Mrs. 
Edward),  258. 

Winsor,  Justin,  v;  on  Miles  Standish, 
131. 

Winters,  223  seq.,  245,  247. 

Winthrop,  Gov.  John,  257,  398; 
visits  Plymouth,  343;  a  colonial 
commissioner,  397. 

Wiswell,  Ichabod  (Rev.),  348,  429, 
432. 

Witchcraft,  370,  381,  382,  383. 

Witches,  380-391 ;  burning  of,  382. 

Wituwamat,  killed,  316. 

Wives,  deaths  among  Pilgrim,  232. 

Wolcott,  Roger,  222,  436. 

Wolsey,  Cardinal,  59. 

Wolves,  236,  257. 

Women,  the  Pilgrim,  231,  232,  243. 

' '  Wonder- Working    Providence ' ' 
(Johnson),  173. 

Wood  Street  Counter,  prison,  55. 

Woodworth,  Mehitabel,  383. 

Woolman, ,  384. 

Worcester,  Eng.,  diocese  of,  32. 

Wordsworth,  William,  32. 

Wright,  William,  257. 

Wycliffe,  2,  4,  5,  12,  14. 

Yarmouth,  Mass.,  346,  373. 
Young,  Alexander,  v,  288. 

Zealand,  39. 

Zurich,  2. 
Zwingli,  2. 


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